Ajax, Odysseus and the Arms of Achilles

Abstract

In his 'Vases in Boston' Beazley mentioned for the first time two f. agments in the Louvre, which he attributed to Onesimos x. We may best begin by quoting his description. 'Louvre, two worn fragments. I (a warrior or the like : part of a shield remains, the device a bull; and what must be part of a cloak). A-B, Deeds of Theseus : on one fragment, the feet of a giant figure to the right, lying on its back (Minotaur ?), and the legs of a female figure hastening to the left; then the head of an animal, fallen (bull? sow ?) ; on the other fragment, the legs, stockinged, of a youth or man (Theseus ?), standing to the right, with a stick, and part of an animal (bull ? sow ?) lying on its back. On I, . . . E*EN (i. e. [ExxpQOVlOQ £7lOl]eO£V ?).' If, however, we turn to the photographs of these Louvre fragments, we see that Beazley's description is not quite accurate. On the outside of one fragment (PL 3 3, 1) it is true that we have the feet of a figure lying on his back with a female figure in a long chiton rushing to the left, but on the right, and no doubt from the other side of the cup, we see not 'the head of an animal, fallen', but the rear, tail and hind leg of a sheep on its back. On the exterior of the second fragment (PL 33,2) we have the end of the chlamjs of one figure, probably facing right, and the legs, part of the chlamjs and knotty stick of another male to the right, while in the background is the rear and flank of a bull also on its back.