The Chigi vase itself is a
polychrome work decorated in four friezes of mythological and genre scenes and four bands of ornamentation; amongst these tableaux is the earliest representation of the
hoplite phalanx formation – the sole pictorial evidence of its use in the mid- to late-7th century, and terminus post quem of the "hoplite reform" that altered military tactics. The lowest frieze is a hunting scene in which three naked short-haired hunters and a pack of dogs endeavour to catch hares and one vixen; a kneeling hunter carries a
lagobolon (a throwing cudgel used in coursing hares) as he signals to his fellows to stay behind a bush. It is not clear from the surviving fragments if a trap is being used, as was common in depictions of such expeditions. The next frieze immediate above suggests a collocation of four or five unrelated events. First a parade of long-haired horsemen, each of whom is leading a riderless horse. Possibly these are squires or
hippobates for some absent cavalrymen or
hippobateis; the latter, it has been conjectured, may be the hoplites seen elsewhere on the vase. The riders are confronted with a two-bodied
sphinx with a floral crown and an
archaic smile. It is not clear if the creature is participating in any of the action in this frieze. Behind the sphinx is a lion-hunting scene in which four youths wearing cuirasses (save for one who is nude, but belted) spear a lion which has a fifth figure in its jaws. Whether there were indigenous lions in the Peloponnese at this time is a matter for speculation. moreover the shock-haired mane of the lion betrays a
neo-Assyrian influence, perhaps the first such in Corinthian art and replacing the previously dominant
Hittite forms. Finally in this section, and just below the handle, is a
Judgement of Paris scene. Above is another hunting scene, albeit of animals only: dogs chasing stags, goats and hares. , Rome) In the highest and largest frieze is the scene that has attracted the most scholarly attention – a battle involving hoplite warfare. However this characterization is not without its problems. For one thing, the hoplites shown here meeting at the moment of
othismos (or "push") do not carry short swords, but instead like their Homeric forebears have two spears; one for thrusting and one for throwing. Further,
Tyrtaeus (11.11–14
West) does not mention a supporting second rank as it may be represented; it is far from self-evident this is a second rank depicted on the vase or that it supports the first. To render the phalanx tactics unambiguously the painter would have had to have given a bird's-eye view of the action, a perspective unknown in Greek vase painting. Consequently, it is not clear if the hoplite formation shown here is the developed form as it was practiced from the 6th century onwards. Lastly
aulos-players and cadenced marching are not attested in literature from the
Archaic Period, so the aulos-player drawn here cannot have served in reality to keep the troops in step: what function he had, if any, is open to speculation. However,
Thucydides does state that a Spartan phalanx in the
Battle of Mantinea was accompanied by aulos-players in order to keep step as they approached the opposing army, which may suggest that they were used in the same way at the time when the vase was made. ==Judgement of Paris==