Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)
Attributed to the Swing Painter
Obverse, Poseidon fighting giant
Reverse, Judgement of Paris
The gods of Mount Olympos had to overcome several threats before their primacy was established. One was a great conflict with the giants. Here Poseidon, the god of the sea, overcomes Polybotes with a boulder that is, in fact, a piece of the island of Kos that he has broken off. The Judgement of Paris involved a potential threat as well, because it began a chain of events that led to the Trojan War. The sea nymph Thetis was fated to bear a son who would be greater than his father; she was therefore married to the mortal Peleus to whom she bore Achilles.
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