Terracotta Neck-Amphora by the Diosphos Painter with Body of Sarpedon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)
Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 500 BC
Attributed to the Diosphos Painter
Obverse: Thanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep) with the body of Sarpedon
Reverse: Eos (Dawn) with the body of her son Memnon

Accession # 56.171.25

The scenes on this jar show two great heroes of the Trojan War being lifted from the battlefield after their deaths. Sarpedon, a son of the god Zeus, will be carried to Lycia, his homeland in southern Asia Minor, and Memnon, to his kingdom in Ethiopia.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.