How do Heroes take a break?

Why You Should Care about Ancient Greek Pottery: Exekias' Amphora

Hello and Welcome to the Dropout Classicist Newsletter! This article today includes an analysis of Mythical Heroes, a scene of calm amongst a war, a hidden love story, and research on Ancient Board Games! If you are not yet subscribed and enjoyed this piece, feel free to do so!

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Pictures of scenes in Greek Mythology give us a wonderful insight into the ancient world and how the Greeks themselves pictured the heroes of the stories passed down to us. Whether this be through statues, carvings, reliefs or frescoes, some of which are considered the greatest pieces of art of all time, we are given a crucial insight into how to view mythology. However, most of these art forms do not play a role in daily life. In fact, they are especially rare outside of temples, palaces or dwellings of the rich. However, these mythical scenes did trickle their way into the lives of every-day folk via the humble vase.

Outside of marble columns, the ochre and black of a classical vase is a distinctive icon. This is for good reason too - they were widely available and thus have spread everywhere the Greeks did. Not only that, they were accessible and practical. Most vases we have surviving today take forms we recognise, whether for storage, drinking or mixing wine. Like fine china was to the victorians, decorated vases were a sign of taste and self-expression. This manifests especially in the scenes depicted, ranging from excerpts of famous tales to religious ceremony.

It is rare we get an insight to the everyday of a hero. Typically, the casual day-to-day does not make for a good story, especially when contrasted to the feats and daring do we see performed. Who would choose to hear of how Achilles spends his free time, when contrasted to the tragic glory of his life on the battlefield? Well, it turns out there was a market for that. Though the prior mentioned scenes of religious life and heroism seem to dominate Greek art, there seems to be a niche popularity for domestic scenes too. Thus, we are lead onto today’s topic: one of the most fascinating and distinctive of these, an amphora by Exekias.

The Exekias Amphora, Vatican Museum

This beautiful amphora depicts a moment of serenity in the Trojan war. Achilles and Ajax, two of the mightiest warriors on the Greek side, take a moment to play a board game. According to the labels painted above the figures, Achilles is winning the game by 4 points to 3. Of course, the figures do not look particularly at ease. Both are fully decked out in battle gear, ready to rush at the Trojans in an instance, with their spears forming a beautiful triangular symmetry. Furthermore, both have their heel raised on one foot and are leaning forward in anticipation; this is clearly an intense game we are watching.

This endearing scene is not one we have any surviving source for. Likely, it was either the invention of a commissioner or of the painter Exekias. Though not directly attested, we can see some important themes from surviving epics present here. Ajax is losing to Achilles, who is often described as the best of the Greeks. Perhaps this is an echo of the infamous scene of Ajax’ suicide after he fails to earn the armour of Achilles, thus failing to succeed him in death? Exekias did paint this very scene on another vase. Or perhaps it is just a demonstration of a friendly bout between two warrior kings in a moment of downtime?

The date of manufacture of this vase is crucial to our interpretation of it. Scholars widely agree that it was painted between 540 and 520 BCE. The painter Exekias, who has signed this piece with the phrase Ἐχεκιας ἐποιησε - ‘Exekias made [me/this]’, has at least 14 other signed works from this period, and many other attributed ones. His works seem to have been popular across tow main locations: Athens and Etruria (Northern pre-Roman Italy). Given that this vase resides in the Vatican Museum, it was likely found in Etruria, though no provenance is listed.

This spread of distribution indicates an appreciation of Exekias’ mastery of vase-painting. His work outshines many in his style. Furthermore, he is painting quite early for the sort of design he uses. After the fall of popularity of Geometric vases in the 6th Century BCE (we covered an early example here), the Black Figure vase rose to popularity. This was later replaced in popularity by the infamous Red Figure style around 100 years later. Considering the pretty recent downfall of Geometric decoration, Exekias seems to have mastered the relatively new style quite early on. The details in the hair and armour, as well as the layout of the scene, are frankly breathtaking. No wonder Exekias is considered a master by scholars. He likely was in antiquity too, given how far this vase must of travelled, and that this design was copied over 150 times.

The Other Face, Photograph: M. Tiverios, Elliniki Techni

Less iconic yet no less great is the reverse design of this vase. It shows the Dioscuri, the divine twins Castor and Pollux, riding and taming dogs. These twins, brothers of Helen of Troy (née of Sparta) did not fight in the Trojan War, having died before it even began. Seen as all the faces of a vase often share some thematic or narrative link, this is initially puzzling. The only tie between these two scenes must be the inherent domesticity that is so present in both. They show heroes at leisure, even if this is merely a temporary leisure for Achilles and Ajax. This vase, if owned by an Etruscan, was likely owned for show. No doubt the owner wished to have a link between themselves and the acts and heroes shown. Perhaps they were a fan of board games and of their animals, and thus wanted a showy conversation piece to reflect this in a heroic narrative?

Despite the fantastic artwork on this vase, I was left with a singular question whenever I looked at it: what game are Achilles and Ajax playing? The answer is unfortunately that we do not know. However, that never stops us from taking an educated guess. I am secretly a big fan of board games, so I decided to dig into this.

There are a variety of opinions on what exactly this game could be. We do not know as much as we would like about gaming habits in the ancient world, as writing on them is uncommon. Suetonius is reputed to have written an entire treaty on board games, and the emperor Claudius similarly on dice games, yet unfortunately neither survive. Game pieces and dice are not too rare in archaeological excavation, but the boards themselves are a lot more perishable and thus are significantly rarer. However, even if all the pieces were to be found for a game, we still would not know the rules. Imagine trying to figure out the rules of chess without any help or writing!

That being said, scholarly research into ancient board games is not as rare as one would expect. A consensus seems to be that they are playing a game similar to Backgammon. This would make sense, given that games of this kind have existed for millennia. The oldest surviving board game, the Game of Ur from Mesopotamia in ~3000BCE, is remarkably similar to the modern surviving backgammon. All in all, it is likely that they were playing a game along these lines.

There is one final thing of note to this vase which I feel must be mentioned. There is another piece of text on it which reads Ὀνετοριδες καλος - ‘Onetorides [is] beautiful’. It is incredibly difficult to tell why this is included. One likely explanation is that this is a vase dedicated to a lover, akin to how Victorians and Edwardians inscribed the names of loved ones in books they were gifting. All in all, this adds a sweet dimension to this already stunning artwork.

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Sources and Wider Reading:

• Carpenter, T.H. Art and Myth in Ancient Greece, (Thames and Hudson)

• Boardman, J. Black Figure Vases, (Thames and Hudoson)

• Brouwers, J. Heroes at Play, Ancient World Magazine https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/ancient-greek-heroes-play/

• Finkel, I Tom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur (British Museum Official Youtube Channel)