Attic amphora
- Gallery: Room 69
- Culture: Attic
- Made in: Attica (Greece)
- Date: 520BC-500BC
- Object type: amphora
- Materials: pottery
- Museum number: 1843,1103.87
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This is an Etruscan red-figured amphora, made in the region of Attica in Greece around 520 to 500 BCE. Before you stands a beautifully painted vase featuring two main scenes.
One side shows the god Apollo, beardless with long hair, playing a large kithara, flanked by his mother Leto and his sister Artemis. Artemis is depicted in rich attire, with a panther-skin draped over her shoulder and a quiver across her back.
The opposite scene highlights three athletes—one preparing to throw a rod, another boxing, and a third, a discus thrower, mid-movement. These images capture the physical and competitive spirit of ancient Greek athletics.
The vase is richly decorated with intricate patterns in black on red, featuring palmettes, ivy, and net designs. The border frames each scene with key and ray motifs, and Greek inscriptions label characters and even include a “kalos” tag, a common feature to praise handsome young men.
See it in person
Attic amphora is on display in Room 69 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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