Caeretan black-figure hydria: Eurystheus leaps into in a storage jar as Heracles presents him with the snaky, snarling Cerberus.
Attributed to the Eagle Painter, ca. 525 BCE. Paris, Musée du Louvre
This Caeretan hydria shares all the typical features of the Caeretan hydriae: a preference for mythological themes (The last of the twelve labors of Herakles was to bring Kerberus, the dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld, back to Mycenae ) ,a taste for colour and natural elements such as the shrub beneath one handle and the abundant floral ornamentation, and lively compositions.
Side A: Heracles, wearing his characteristic lion-skin, club in right hand, leash in left, presenting a three-headed Cerberus, snakes coiling from his snouts, necks and front paws to a frightened Eurystheus hiding in a giant pot.
Side B: two eagles flying and a hare.
Museum Replica,handmade
H. 28 cm
