Lastly, we find a few possible representations of the death of Achilles,[1408] and others, more certainly to be identified, of the battle raging round his body, in which Diomedes is wounded[1409]; also of Ajax carrying the body off out of the battle,[1410] and the subsequent mourning of the Nereids over it.[1411] A representation of the ghost of a warrior, winged and fully armed, flying over a ship,[1412] is to be regarded as that of Achilles, though to what event it alludes is not clear. The dispute over the hero’s armour and the suicide of the disappointed Ajax are introduced by a scene representing the fetching of Neoptolemos, his son, from Skyros, where he bids farewell to Lykomedes and Deidameia[1413]; of the quarrel between Ajax and Odysseus there are also several representations.[1414] It was decided finally by Athena, who is represented presiding over the Greek chiefs as they vote[1415]; or, according to another version, they cast lots before her statue.[1416] The armour is then awarded to Neoptolemos,[1417] who, according to an oracle, was indispensable for the capture of Troy. Ajax goes mad with disappointment, and finally commits suicide by falling on his sword[1418]; the episode of his slaying the sheep is not, however, represented.
The Ἰλίου Πέρσις, or =sack of Troy=, which is so vividly represented on many of the vases of advanced and late style, may be said to begin with the episode of the seizure of the Palladion by Odysseus and Diomede.[1419] It is rapidly followed by the construction of the wooden horse and its entry into the city.[1420] There is, however, only one certain representation of the death of Laokoön to be traced,[1421] and none of the traitorous Sinon.
Several vases, especially of the later epoch, collect the chief episodes in a frieze or in a series of groups, including the rape of Kassandra by Ajax, son of Oileus, the death of Priam and Astyanax, the recapture of Helen by Menelaos, and the flight of Aeneas; other scenes represented are the leading back of Aithra by Akamas and Demophon, and the sacrifice of Polyxena and subsequent blinding of Polymestor by Hecuba.
Berlin 1685 (= Overbeck, _Her. Bildw._ pl. 26, 1) and 2281; Plate LIV. = Furtwaengler and Reichhold, pl. 25 (Brygos in Louvre); Naples 2422 = Furtwaengler and Reichhold, pl. 34 = Baumeister, i. pl. 14, fig. 795; B.M. F 160, F 278.