If this tondo alone were to appear on the art market today, it would instantly be dismissed as a forgery: it’s an absolute outlier within Late Archaic vase painting, even jarringly different from the exterior scenes on the same cup. Happily, it was unearthed in Vulci during the early 19th century and we can dig right into the extraordinary scene…
Achilles (fresh-faced and doe-eyed and named by inscription) kneels over his companion Patroklos (also named by inscription), who sits in an ungainly splay upon his shield. Patroklos seems to have taken an arrow to his bicep and Achilles has exited the fighting long enough to bandage him up (raised by Chiron, we can imagine the hero was a consummate healer).
The composition is perfectly thought out: one bracing foot against the “wall” of the tondo, helmet crest mimicking its curvature. And the details are truly extraordinary, with intricately scaled armour, finely pleated diaphanous chitoinskoi, and each tendon, muscle, fingernail and crease rendered, with added white used for Patroklos’ grimace and bandage. Realistic eyes in profile wouldn’t be attempted by other painters for another half century but here they are, adding pathos to the scene. What about the foot (rendered painstakingly in top-down plan) facing us? Extraordinary!
Anyway, I could go on and on but I want to touch briefly upon the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos, for it was a complicated one, with different aspects emphasised in ancient accounts as well. Today, they are often hailed as queer icons with the homosexual component brought to the fore. And I don’t want to take away from that, necessarily. But I do think that their bond transcended easy categorization: they were kin, they were friends and sometimes lovers, fighting cheek to jowl in heady, heightened hand to hand combat. But even more than that Patroklos was Achilles’ θεράπων – perhaps translatable as his ‘body-man’ or ‘ritual substitute’ – with both men knowing one would fall at Troy, and both doing everything possible to prevent this tragic outcome.
