One side depicts the warriors Achilles and Memnon fighting over the body of Antilochus, flanked by two female onlookers. As per mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king who fought at Troy against the Greeks and killed Nestor's son Antilochus in battle. Nestor implored Achilles to seek vengeance for his fallen son, after Memnon refused to fight the elderly father. As depicted here, the ensuing clash echoed that of Achilles and Hector: both heroes were protected by divine armor made by Hephaestus, and Zeus granted each heroic strength and unyielding energy. Their mothers, Thetis and Eos (perhaps the two onlookers depicted here), watched Zeus weigh the destinies of their sons. Achilles was eventually victorious, stabbing Memnon through the heart. For a similar example by the same hand, see H. Hoffmann, et al., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, fasc. 1, p. 7, pl. 10.
This amphora was formerly in the collection of Sir Stephen Lewis Courtauld (1883-1967), a noted philanthropist who focused on educational and cultural projects in Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe). Born into the wealthy textile family (his brother was Samuel Courtauld, founder of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London), Sir Stephen moved to Rhodesia in 1951 and built an estate known as La Rochelle in Penhalonga. Upon the founding of the University of Zimbabwe, Sir Stephen bequeathed his collection of 264 Greek and Roman coins to the institution. The collection was later published by T.F. Carney in 1964 (A Catalogue of the Roman and Related Foreign Coins in the Collection of Sir Stephen Courtauld).