Agora Object: Agora XXX, no. 237
Chronology:   Ca. 480 B.C.
Deposit:   C 9:6
Published Number:   AV 30.237
References:   Object: P 8533
Two non-joining fragments, a of wall, b of rim and neck with start of handle zone at far left. Glaze pitted on inside of a. Max. dim. a) 0.077, b) 0.14; W. of rim 0.025; H. of neck 0.063. W. B. Dinsmoor, Hesperia Suppl. V, p. 134, fig. 61:13; D. B. Thompson, Garden Lore of Ancient Athens (Agora Picture Book 8), Princeton 1963, fig. 1; Schleiffenbaum, Volutenkrater, p. 322, cat. no. V 199.

Fragment b, the rim and neck fragment: on side of rim, stopped-maeander pattern with saltire-squares; on neck, double chain of lotuses and encircled palmettes. This is from near the handle zone, because there is no black background next to the palmettes on the left. Fragment a shows a warrior (pteryges of his corslet, skirt of short chiton, scabbard at left side, left arm and hand with round shield seen from the inside, a bit of his left heel just above the lower break), falling to right, at least to judge from the position of the fragment, which comes from well below maximum diameter and from what remains of the figure. In the lower right, the end of a himation over a long chiton of another figure moving to right. Preliminary sketch. Relief contour. Rim of shield incised (compass-drawn). Dilute glaze: chitons; shield grip; decoration on border of himation. Red: in upper left corner of fragment, ends of a baldric or drops of blood from a wound.

The small amount of the figured composition that is preserved suggests that the subject might be the duel between Achilleus and Hektor, a theme that enjoys a brief vogue in the first two decades of the 5th century (LIMC I, 1981, pp. 133--138, s.v. Achilleus [A. Kossatz-Deissmann]). If so, then the falling warrior would be Hektor, who has just been speared by the avenging Achilleus, and the other figure, Apollo deserting him. Hektor may have looked something like his counterpart on the volute-krater in London by the Berlin Painter that names the figures (E 468: ARV2 206, 132; Paralip. 343, 132; Addenda 194) or the kalpis in the Vatican, H 545, by the Eucharides Painter (ARV2 229, 38; Paralip. 347, 38; Addenda 199). For the composition, cf. also the giant attacked by Athena on London, B.M. E 165 by the Tyszkiewicz Painter (ARV2 294, 62; Addenda 211). The scene on 237 might also illustrate the fight between Diomedes and Aineas: cf. the namepiece of the Tyszkiewicz Painter, Boston 97.368 (ARV2 290, 1; Paralip. 355, 1; Addenda 210), though this seems less likely. For this theme, cf. LIMC I, 1981, pp. 384--385, s.v. Aineias (F. Canciani).

The ornament on the side of the mouth and on the upper zone of the neck is best paralleled on two volute-kraters by the Berlin Painter, London, B.M. E 468 and Karlsruhe 68.101 (Paralip. 344, 131 bis; Addenda 194). The manner in which the tendrils of the lotus flowers are overlapped by those of the palmettes is similar to that on the namepiece of the Tyszkiewicz Painter, Boston 97.368. But the drawing of the figures on 237 is weaker than that of these two painters.