Attic Panathenaic Amphora (Left, post-conservation)

The Greater Panathenaia, a state religious festival, honored Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. Held every four years, the festival included athletic and musical competitions, and amphorae filled with oil from Athena’s sacred olive trees were given as prizes in the Panathenaic Games.

These Panathenaic Amphorae had a distinctive form with narrow necks and feet, and received standard decoration, always in the black-figure technique. On the front, Athena in her guise as “Promachos” – in the frontline of battle - strides forth between columns. Running along one of the columns is the official inscription, "of the prizes from Athens." The back depicts the event for which the vase was a prize, in this case the four-horse-chariot race, one of the most prestigious events in the games.

Leading vase-painters decorated these prize amphorae, which were commissioned in large quantities by the state, and their work can often be differentiated by the motif they used to decorate the shield of Athena. For example, the winged horse Pegasos seen here seems to have been typical for the Kleophrades Painter.

Though the oil within was the real prize, the vessels that contained it could be highly valued, as lasting symbols of prowess and excellence. This example preserves ancient repair holes at one of the handles.