Attic White-Ground Lekythos

Achilles Painter

about 435–430 B.C.

Terracotta

J. Paul Getty Museum

The lekythos is decorated on its front with a scene of a man and a woman who stand facing one another. Between them, a shield lies on the ground, with traces of a helmet resting on top of it. The male figure, whose body is frontal, wears a garment that falls to the mid-thigh. It hangs from his left shoulder, like an exomis, or perhaps a chitoniskos that has only partially been donned, and a swag of drapery is looped over the flexed left arm to hang beside the thigh. The figure's left hand is raised, with the fingers articulated as if holding something between the thumb and second finger (perhaps a spear). He looks at the woman, and