<aside> 💡 Note: This schema is almost identical to No. 061 which is identified as the Duel between Turnus and Aeneas.
</aside>
Front of etruscan cinerary urn with scene depicting the mortal duel between Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus, for the conquest of Thebes.
Italian XIX, 5. Verona, Lapidary Museum; Maffei Mus. Veron. Table V n. 3; described not without serious errors by the Dütschke Antike Bildw. in Oberital. IV n. 573; L. 0.62; alabaster from Volterra. The base of the urn and the frieze are wider than usual and decorated with extraordinary richness. The field occupied by the representation is significantly restricted in height, which is also affected by the figures' proportions. The two brothers closely resemble No. previous one. Polynice, which also here occupies the corner d. of the urn, is even more exhausted and weighed down by his companion at the back. Still, Eteocles also stands up with difficulty and his respective companion. Oedipus in all resembles n. 2; the raised arm is dressed with a narrow embroidered sleeve; in the right holds the sceptre (only partially preserved). The child assists him, who, with an agitated face, looks at Eteocles. Jocasta, who appears in the background between his wife and his dying son, shows old age with a wrinkled face; as for the concept, it does not differ from n. previous one. A new figure fills the much greater space between Eleocles and Polynice, a beardless warrior, that is, dressed in a tunic, narrow sleeve and boots, and arm him with a shield, a helmet in the shape of a Phrygian cap and a sword (partly broken). He holds out his shield against Polynice, richly decorated with a head in the centre, and against it, he seems to direct the sword. He could take himself for a Theban warrior who in this way expresses his sentiment or Creon's sentence against the young man who had come to conquer his homeland; however, the doubt remains that it is simply one of the usual generic figures introduced here and there according to the needs of the space. Instead of Antigone, we can see in the background, on r. of this figure, a bearded man, fully clothed and diademed, who cannot be other than Creon himself, Eteocles' successor in the kingdom. Note his immeasurably large head, perhaps to make it stand out better, his body is largely hidden behind the warrior's shield and Polynice's legs. In the left corner of the representation, you can see the Fury of no. Previous, missing the upper part of the head and the left arm, while the end of the inverted face held in her hand is preserved. At the bottom of the representation are finally indicated the walls of Thebes with three towers.
(Gustav Körte, Heinrich von Brunn. The reliefs of the Etruscan urns (Band 2, 1). Berlin, 1890, p. 49).
© 2011. Photo: Ilya Shurygin.