Harvard 1960.314

Harvard 1960.314 (Vase)

Side A: Herakles and the Erymanthian Boar. Side B: Warriors leaving home.

ID:: aa_5321
Type:: Vase
Date:: ca. -510 — ca. -500
Period:: Archaic
Context:: From Caere
Region:: Etruria
Painter:: Attributed to the Acheloos Painter
Condition:: Broken and repaired, with cracks and minor gaps restored. No large pieces are missing, and the surface is in generally good condition, with good preservation of the added colors. The glaze has flaked in some places, and there are gouges and nicks.
Dimensions:: H. 0.409 m.; D. 0.279 m.
Ware:: Attic Black Figure
Shape:: Neck amphora

Shape Description

Standard neck-amphora, as produced in the Leagros Group workshop: Triple-reeded handles; echinus mouth; torus foot; shoulder relatively broad and flat; fillet between foot and body.

Decoration Description

Side A: Herakles slaying the Erymanthian Boar. Herakles attacks to the right, his lower body largely obscured by the rump of the boar, which also runs to the right. Herakles grabs the boar's head with his left hand and with his right hand raises his club to strike it. The hero wears a short chiton; belted over this is the skin of the Nemean lion, its head worn like a hood and its fore-paws knotted at Herakles' throat. Added white is used for the teeth and claws of the lionskin, and the dots of added red on the mane are repeated on Herakles' beard. The fur of the lionskin is indicated with short incised lines. At Herakles' hip, a sword and scabbard hang from a white baldric, which may also support the bow and red-striped quiver on his back. The tufted tail of the boar and the short bristles along the ridge of its back are rendered with fine incision, and the massive neck is covered with dots of added red. The boar's left foreleg and long, curving snout overlap the bearded man standing at right, identified as Hermes by his "Robin Hood" petasos and the long tongues of his boots, which in Attic black-figure are frequently used to suggest rather than actually represent the god's famous winged boots. Added red colors the god's beard and cap-brim; his hair is tied in a krobylos. The cloak tied around his waist is decorated with red dots and white dot-rosettes. Hermes gestures emphatically with his right hand and extends his left arm to cross that of Herakles. In the background stands a slender tree, its leafy branches spreading to either side and weighted with fruit represented by balls of added white.

Side B: Two warriors stand side by side in the center; both are in profile to the left, but the farther one looks back to the right. Their bodies are obscured from chin to mid-thigh by the round shield of the nearer warrior, a hoplite in Corinthian helmet and greaves. The farther warrior is an archer, possibly a Scythian to judge by his pointed leather cap. The quiver at his hip shows he is an archer. The hoplite carries a pair of spears, and his helmet crest interrupts the frieze of tongues above. His shield has a red rim and a device of added white: a human leg bent to suggest running, a common motif sometimes linked with two other legs to form a triskeles. Both warriors walk toward an old man with white hair and beard, who stands at left. He holds a tall scepter in his left hand and wears a himation decorated with red spots and white dot-rosettes. The himation of the white-skinned woman walking behind the warriors at right has similar decoration, and she also wears a red fillet on her head. Both her arms are covered by the himation, which she draws up with her right hand.

On either side of the neck is a lotus and palmette chain, drawn in silhouette without incision. On either side of the shoulder, above the figures, is a band of tongues, alternately red and black. Below the groundline a single stripe is a band of lotus buds framed by paired stripes; the buds point upward, and there are dots in the lower interstices. Below this, above the foot, is a band of rays. Below the handles on either side is a symmetrical quatrefoil of palmettes linked by coiling tendrils, with a lotus flower on either side of the central junction and a third pendant below it. The fillets between foot and body and between body and neck are painted red, and there is a red stripe around the edge of the rim. The mouth is black inside and out, but reserved on top. The foot is black, as are the outsides of the handles.

Notes

Cf. the Herakles and boar on another neck-amphora by the Acheloos Painter in the Vatican (ABV, 383, 4). Cf. also Louvre F 236 (CVA, 4, pl. 46), in which Athena is also present. In illustrating this deed of Herakles, black-figure artists more commonly represented another episode, with Herakles using the upended boar to threaten Eurystheus, who takes refuge in a pithos; cf. the Acheloos Painter's version on a neck-amphora in Paris: Louvre S 1283 (Para., 169, 4 ter). The composition on the Harvard vase is essentially a variation of the one employed on the artist's name-vase, with Herakles struggling with the river-god Acheloos, as Hermes looks on: Berlin F 1851 (ABV, 383, 3).