Called an amphora, after the Greek amphoreus ("carried on both sides," thus the two upright handles), this pot was made in Athens in the second half of the sixth century B.C. It is a "neck amphora," with a swelling midsection and narrow neck and foot. The decorations are by the same artist as those on a well-known amphora in the Vatican Museums.

The painter used the black-figure technique, invented around 700 B.C. The figures were silhouetted in black glaze on the natural orange color of the clay. Details, such as the muscle lines on the central figure's right arm, were incised with a sharp point. Touches of red and white paint were added: red for the figures' garments, and -- a convention in Greek vase-painting from this period -- white for the women's skin. Other conventions of this style are the rigid, profile stances of the figures; the eyes shown frontally in profile heads; and the winding bands of floral and geometric designs.

One side of the amphora shows the sun god Apollo with his lyre, or kithara. Apollo, god of fine arts, medicine, music, poetry, and eloquence, was known for his beauty and attractiveness to women. Here, two women holding garlands accompany him. On the amphora's opposite side is a scene popular in ancient Greek art, the warrior with his chariot departing for battle.