Attic Black-Figure Neck Amphora

In the mythological battles of the Greeks, a conflict did not always end when a warrior killed his opponent. There was often a struggle to decide the fate of the fallen figure’s body. The defeated warrior’s comrades tried to recover the corpse, in order that it could be buried, while their opponents sought to strip it of armor, mutilate it or hold it for ransom. 

The front of this Athenian black‑figure neck‑amphora shows such a conflict. In the center of the scene, two warriors battle over a corpse, stripped of all its armor except for the helmet and shield. A similar scene appears to the left. To the right, a warrior chases a fleeing opponent. The scene on the back of the vase shows a group of warriors flanked by riders and onlookers, and a procession of galloping horsemen decorates the shoulder on both sides of the vase