Of the pannels of Polygnotos' painting, this first one is the most unusual and difficult to interpret from the description. The ship and its relation to the shore and the dismantling of huts are foriegn to the medium of vase painting. These elements demand a large area of the picture plane, and articulation of the space, clues of which are hard to glean from vases.

Ships are not represented often on a vases, but some examples are: a cup showing Dionysos in a ship by Exekias, the Francois Vase, a vase in the British Museum, and one from Ruvo in Naples (Jatta 1501 ARV1338,1) (Athenian Red Figure Vases: the Classical Period fig 324) from which I took the gangway. What Pausanius calls "boat-hooks" seem like they might be the rudders of the ship, since in vase painting there seem to be always two rudders, and figures in ships do not hold any other sort of hooks or poles. For a good look at a reconstructed trireme and more about travel, see Maria Daniels' project.

Pausanius writes: "Homer[1] represents Nestor as speaking about Phrontis in his conversation with Telemachus, saying that he was the son of Onetor and the steersman of Menelaus, of very high repute in his craft, and how he came to his end when he was already rounding Sunium in Attica. Up to this point Menelaus had been sailing along with Nestor, but now he was left behind to build Phrontis a tomb, and to pay him the due rites of burial." Odyssey 3.276.

I could not find any representations of the "huts" of the Greek encampment, nor any figures taking buildings apart. The houses I drew are simplified versions of houses or temples from vases. In Perseus: a black figure fountainhouse and figures under a porch.

Figures carrying clothes are not infrequently depicted on vases. I am not certain of the depiction of the bronze urn, but I made it resemble a skyphos.

There seem to be many children in the painting: boys on the ship and this nameless on seated on the ground.

I have included a tree because trees and plants occur on several contemporary vases.

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