Storage Jar with Aeneas and Anchises

For the Greeks, the mythical Trojan War was the central event in their early history. Episodes from that conflict fill Greek art and literature. A scene from the culmination of that war, the sack of Troy, decorates the front of this Athenian black-figure neck-amphora. The Trojan hero Aeneas has lifted his aged father Anchises onto his back and carries him to safety, escaping the fallen city. They are preceded by Aeneas's young son. Behind them, the goddess Aphrodite, who had once been Anchises' lover and is Aeneas's mother, gestures in grief and sympathy. The painter of the Leagros group who decorated this vase labeled Aphrodite, Aeneas, and Anchises, adding a popular formulaic comment on their beauty, but he also added a variety of nonsense inscriptions--just meaningless combinations of letters--to the vase. The back of the vase depicts Dionysos, the god of wine, frolicking with satyrs, his partially human companions. Dionysos, who carries a kantharos or drinking cup, and one of the satyrs appear to be dancing to the music played by the satyr with the aulos or double pipes.