The front of the vessel is carved in low relief with a scene of a warrior and an Amazon engaged in combat. The warrior raises his right hand, which originally would have held a painted spear, in his left is a circular shield, he wears a chiton, cuirass and helmet. The Amazon has fallen and lies sprawled on the ground, her weight on her left arm which rests on her discarded bow, she raises her right arm behind her head. She is wearing a short dress, belted at the waist, which has slipped from her right shoulder to reveal her breast. Above the scene is the name ΚΟΛΥ-ΜΒΑΣ ‘Kolymbas’; the word split in half to allow for the warrior’s helmet plume which would have been painted on. Clean breaks to the top and bottom, the neck and vestigial handles broken away.

Loutrophoroi were vessels used by the Greeks during nuptial and funerary rituals. Production of large tomb markers such as this, which lined the roads on the outskirts of the city, was short lived, for in 317 BC Demetrios Phalereus issued a decree prohibiting luxurious funerary monuments.

The scene on the front of this grave marker is rife with symbolism. At first glance, it is simply a retelling of the famous fight of the Greeks against the wild Amazons. To the ancient Greeks, the existence of the Amazons represented a distortion of natural order; one where women roamed wild, would fight, hunt and rule, and where they didn’t need men in their society. Their defeat by the civilised Greeks represented the triumph of order over chaos; of West over East (or more often than not, of Athens over Persia). The Amazon is represented with one breast exposed, which signified pre- ordained defeat. In the present example, we are viewing the end of a battle, where a man stands triumphant over the fallen. One might presume a link is being drawn between the warrior and the man being commemorated — perhaps he was a soldier, or a politician instrumental in military or foreign affairs.