Poor Oedipus, ruler of Thebes! A man who exemplifies the Greek certainty that one can never escape one's fate, and whose whole existence seems to point to the moral that knowledge and the pain it brings is a better state of being than ignorance coupled with bliss.

The vase shows Oedipus as a young man sitting in front of the Sphinx pondering the infamous riddle. The Sphinx, a winged creature with a human face and the body of a lion had been terrorizing Thebes and killing all those who had bravely listened to and tried to answer it's riddle:

"Which animal has one voice, but two, three or four feet, being slowest on three?" Another interpretation of the riddle is "Which animal is it that goes on four feet in the morning, one two at noon, and upon three in the evening?" The answer is, of course, man; who crawls in infancy, walks upright in his prime, and uses a cane when elderly.

Oedipus solved the riddle, and watched as the enraged Sphinx beat itself to death on the rocks. He returned to Thebes where he became a great hero and eventually king, marrying his mother. (Unknown to him, he had earlier in his journey killed his biological father, the then current King of Thebes, in a roadside altercation. His true identity was also unknown to Queen Jocasta his mother, since she believed her son was left for dead as a baby.) In the vase scene, notice Oedipus' walking stick. His Greek name actually stems from the words "swollen feet", a lifelong infirmity caused by having been hung by his feet and left for dead as an infant. In the picture, Oedipus is wearing a traveling hat known as "petasos" which provided shade from the sun while on the road.

The reverse side of the vase shows the god Hephaistos, (Roman-Vulcan), metalworker to the gods, preparing to give Achilles' mother the magical armor he created for her son. Hephaistos is wearing a goatskin cap worn by foundry workers for protection from the heat. Thetis, in draped robes, has her arm out to receive the shield, while the greaves (leg coverings) are at her feet. Metalworking tools also appear in the background of the scene.

The narrow neck on the amphora signifies use for pouring oil- the narow neck allows for nearly one drop at a time to be poured.