The death of Patroklos

This red-figure kylix counts among the largest drinking cups in the Berlin Antikensammlung. Reassembled from multiple fragments, it is decorated on the inside with a simply outlined tondo of a warrior. He wears a Corinthian helmet, a cuirass, greaves, and a chiton falling in delicate folds. His shield, so large as to hide much of his body, bears the motif of a bowing lion ready to attack. In his right hand he holds a spear, in his left a salpinx – a trumpet used in battle. On the outside of the cup is the battle itself. The figures are labeled as heroes from Homer’s Iliad who fought in the Trojan War. Along with their names, the painter Oltos also recorded his own and that of the potter Euxitheos for all posterity.
One of the scenes on the vase’s exterior shows the fight for the body of Patroklos. The young man lies naked on the ground, his left hand under his head, as if asleep. Above him, two pairs of hoplites charge toward each other from either side. Those on the right are Trojans, labeled Aineias and Hipasos, with shield motifs of a lion and a phallus-bird hybrid. Facing them on the left are the Greek heroes Ajax and Diomedes. All of the warriors’ weapons and poses are identical, and also match those of the warrior in the tondo.
The sixteenth book of the Iliad recounts the death of Patroklos. He went into battle armed in Achilles’ armour, only to be killed by the Trojan prince Hektor with divine help from Apollo. After the Trojans stripped the body of its precious armour, they wanted to drag away the corpse or even desecrate it – but Menelaos and Ajax led a brutal charge to recover it (Il. 17). Although the cup names Diomedes among the warriors, this must be a mistake: Diomedes was wounded and so did not participate in the battle. The Iliad names Lykomedes as fighting beside Ajax, and not Hipasos but Apisaon fighting beside Aineias.
A four-horse chariot dominates the other side of the vase. The horses’ finely-detailed heads are held high in impatience; they must be about to depart. Behind them is the goddess Iris, shown frontally. She looks left but gestures right, beseeching the bearded charioteer to wait. He stands in the chariot grasping the reins and whip, while beside him a young warrior, Antilochos, mounts or dismounts. At the far left an old man wrapped in a mantle leans on a staff, reaching out to a bearded warrior whose round shield is painted with an octopus. Inscriptions name the old man Nestor, the warrior Achilles, and the charioteer Phoinix. Two possible interpretations of the scene both relate to the death of Patroklos: the first would have Achilles speaking with Nestor before he knows of his friend Patroklos’ death. Nestor, meanwhile, sends his son Antilochos into battle (Il. 17.378–383). The second possibility is that the scene shows Achilles receiving the news of Patroklos’ death. Menelaos sent Antilochos to deliver the message (Il. 17.685 ff.), so the warrior may be shown dismounting from the chariot to approach Achilles.
The painter Oltos is one of the earliest known painters to have decorated vessels in red-figure technique. He collaborated with numerous potters also known by name, including Kachrylion, Pamphaios, Nikosthenes, and Euxitheos. This latter potted not only this vase but another magnificent cup found in Tarquinia, and signed both of them together with Oltos.