Read About This Ancient Etruscan Water Jug

This clay water jug, known as a hydria, has two handles for carrying and a third one for pouring. Its rich decoration suggests it may have been used at dinner parties. It was made in the city of Caere in Etruria, an area in central Italy inhabited by the Etruscans, who ruled the Romans in the sixth century BCE.

The symmetrical hydria is decorated in a Greek black-figure technique, in which figures are painted as black silhouettes detailed with added color and carved lines. The colorful decoration resembles other vases from Caere and suggests they were made at a local workshop.

Etruscans traded and interacted with Greeks and appreciated their vessel shapes and mythology. Both the decorative motifs and the mythological story drawn on this hydria are borrowed from Greece.

Parts of vessels were often painted by different people, with the main scene saved for the lead artist. On a hydria, the best space for storytelling is on the front of the jug between the two handles. This artist painted a dramatic moment of deadly conflict between the Greek hero Herakles (called Hercules by the Romans) and a giant nine-headed snaky monster known as the Hydra. This was one of the Twelve Labors of Herakles, dangerous tasks the hero was forced to undertake as a punishment. This particular task was to kill the deadly Hydra, which grew two heads for each one that was cut off.

Herakles and his companion Iolaos work together here to defeat the monster. On the left, Iolaos uses a sickle, a harvesting tool, to behead the snake heads. Below him, a fire suggests that each severed neck was to be burned to keep the heads from regrowing. On the right, Herakles brandishes his club at one head of the Hydra. The club is one of his attributes (symbols) that identifies him in art. Meanwhile, a giant crab sent by the goddess Hera to cause him trouble is preparing to pinch the hero.

On the other side of the hydria, under the handle for pouring, two sphinxes face in opposite directions. These mythological creatures originated in Egypt, where they were considered male, but the white faces of these two sphinxes show they are female. In Greek and Etruscan art at this time, artists depicted women’s skin as paler than men’s, and black-figure artists painted female skin white over the black silhouette. The sphinxes’ wings and bellies are also painted white, although in places where the white color has worn away the black is starting to show through.

Colorful ornamental patterns cover most of the vessel, including common Greek motifs such as alternating red and black tongue shapes, rays, diamonds, and palmettes. Vine leaves that resemble hearts encircle the shoulder of the hydria. The exactly-repeated floral designs reveal that artists used a template or stencil instead of working freehand.

Look for Details on the Hydria Using Different Points of View

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• The Etruscans made this water jug, but they used Greek styles and told a Greek story on it. Why do you think they copied ideas from another culture instead of only using their own?
• Different artists painted different parts of the jug. One person did the decorative patterns and the best artist painted the main story. Why do you think they gave the hero story to the most skilled artist?
• The artists used stencils to make the repeated flower patterns but painted the hero scene by hand. Why might decorating with patterns be different from telling a story with pictures?

Optional Activities

Watch the video about the Caeretan Hydria or listen to the audio recording of Mary Louise Hart, Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, to learn more.

A special object or symbol that helps you recognize a person or god in art (like Zeus holding a lightning bolt).

An ancient Greek pottery style where figures are painted in black on orange clay.

A fearsome monster from Greek myths with many snake heads that grew back when cut off.

A large clay jar used in ancient Greece for carrying water.

A design, shape, or idea that repeats throughout an artwork.

Decorative fan-shaped designs based on palm leaves, common in ancient art. The center frond is always the largest.

In Egyptian and Greek art and legend, a mythical creature with a human head and a lion’s body (sometimes with wings).