Detail of the figural scene, left: Athena, wearing her aegis and helmet, h...

Detail of the figural scene, right: Iolaos' left hand, grasping a tor...

Detail of the figural scene, right of center: Iolaos advancing profile to ...

Detail of the figural scene, center: Herakles and Iolaos reaching to the H...

View of the left side: Athena Promachos, advancing profile to the right

Detail of the figural scene, left of center: Herakles, wearing his lionski...

Collection: Paris, Musée du Louvre
Summary: Herakles and the Hydra accompanied by Athena and Iolaos
Ware: Attic Black Figure, White Ground
Painter: Attributed to the Diosphos Painter
Attributed By: J.D. Beazley
Context: From Eretria
Date: ca. 500 BC - ca. 480 BC
Primary Citation: Haspels 1936, 233.19
Shape: Lekythos
Beazley Number: 461
Period: Late Archaic

Decoration Description: Athena, wearing her Aegis and helmet, holding a spear in her lowered right hand, advances profile to the right, and reaches her left arm towards Herakles, seemingly to help him. Herakles and Iolaos both reach to the Hydra, from the left and right respectively. Herakles, wearing his belted lion skin, advances profile to the right, holding a scythe in his upraised left hand, with which to damage the Hydra; Hera's crab is beneath Herakles. Iolaos, wearing greaves, a chlamys over a short tunic, a sword, and a Corinthian helmet, advances profile to the left, grasping the Hydra with his upraised right hand; he grasps a torch in his upraised left hand, which he has lit on a fire, behind him.

Sources Used: Boardman 1974, fig. 270

Other Bibliography: LIMC 5, s.v. Herakles 2004, pl. 54; Boardman 1974, fig. 270