Attic Black-Figure: Exekias, Amphora with Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game

This Khan Academy Smarthistory video features Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker discussing an example of Greek amphora pottery. The vase depicts a game between Achilles and Ajax. This vase is signed by Exekias, one of two vases signed by the potter, and found its way to Italy, where it currently resides in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum in the Vatican.

An analysis of the vase is given alongside a history of Achilles - who is winning, as his dice had rolled a 'four' and Ajax, who has rolled a 'three.' Ancient Greeks would have been familiar with the myth, as told by Homer in the Iliad, and would have instantly known both the context of the scene being played out on the vase, as well as the way the myth ends, with Achilles dying a great hero, Ajax carrying him off the battlefield, and losing an oration contest for Achilles' armor, at which Ajax commits several murders and later, dies by his own sword.