This is a most extraordinary scene in hammered bronze sheet showing a warrior stepping into his chariot en route to the battlefield. He turns to gaze back at the woman and young child on her shoulders.
I can’t resist (a little self-indulgent) ‘reading’ the scene as a condensed illustration Hector’s famous farewell in book 6 of the Iliad. His gleaming helmet and crest terrify the little princeling in his wife’s arms, amusing the hale hero even as he and Andromache know full well it is a combat he will not return from.
The detail is extraordinary if you can make it out (squint!), with gorgeously incised helmet crest, enormous shield with a meander border all around the interior, and finely patterned tunics worn by warrior and charioteer. I find it quite striking that the mother and child stand apart, somewhat isolated, in contrast to the manly pairing. Hers is not a happy fate if the city falls…
Facial expressions betray very little, and as in so much of Archaic art the emotional tenor is all in the gestures: the entreaty of an extended hand, and the tender unity between mother and toddler.
