Achilles and Ajax Playing a Game

c. 540–530 BCE

Black-figure terracotta amphora, 61.1 cm high · Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Exekias signed this amphora as both potter and painter. Its scene, found nowhere in Homer, shows the two greatest Greek warriors bent over a board game during the war. It was found at Vulci in Etruria and given to Pope Gregory XVI in 1834.

Words come from their mouths: “four” for Achilles, “three” for Ajax, so Achilles is winning.
Achilles still wears his helmet; Ajax has taken his off.
Very fine incised detail covers their cloaks.
On the other side, Castor and Pollux return home to their parents.

Achilles and Ajax were the strongest Greek fighters at Troy. Both died there: Achilles by Paris’s arrow, Ajax by his own hand.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain