The J. Paul Getty Museum

Object Description

The vase is reconstructed from fragments. Side A: Herakles and the Erymanthean boar. Herakles, dressed in his lionskin and carrying his quiver, bow, and sword, holds the huge boar head down on his shoulder. He steps up with one foot onto the pithos in which Eurystheus cowers with arms upraised. The scene is flanked by Athena (with spear and shield) and another female onlooker. Side B: Departure of a warrior. In the centre, a hoplite with low-crested Corinthian helmet, spear and round shield (blazon: recumbent dog?) stands facing left, accompanied by a dog. Before him, an old man with a scepter gestures with his right hand, while a woman looks on from the right, also gesturing. The warrior’s shield and much of the woman’s drapery are a reddish colour, due to misfiring. On the neck, addorsed palmettes; below the handles, complex palmette tendril patterns; below the figural scenes, bands of interlinked upright lotus buds and upright rays. The foot is painted black.