1994.121: Hydria (water jar): Herakles as Musician

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1994.121

Title

Hydria (water jar): Herakles as Musician

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

c. 510 BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Find Spot: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Vulci (Etruria)

Period

Archaic period

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/286802

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Black-figure

Dimensions

with handles: 41 x Diam. 32 cm (16 1/8 x 12 5/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Found at Vulci. Campanari Collection (1833). Durand Collection (1833-1836) sold; to Claude Camille Rollin, Paris, (1836). Purchase (1993) Jerome Eisenberg, Royal Athena Galleries, New York, [Nanterre Sale], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1994.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

Beazley Archive Database #44158

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Florence Gould Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Eisenberg and William Collins Kohler, Purchase from the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund, Anonymous Fund in memory of Henry Berg, Henry George Berg Bequest, Gift in Gratitude to John Coolidge, Gift of Leslie Cheek, Jr., Director's Discretionary Fund

Accession Year

1994

Object Number

1994.121

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

On the shoulder: three pairs of warriors in combat. Each of the figures wears armor and a helmet, and carries a shield and a spear. Added red and white are used for some details, like the greaves, helmet crests, shield bands and insignia, and clothing, although some of this added color has been lost.

On the body: Heracles stands left of center, and faces towards the right, holding a kithara (lyre). He holds a plectrum attached to the body of the instrument by string in his right hand. He wears his characteristic lion skin, decorated with flecks to indicate its fur, over a short tunic (chiton), and he also carries a bow and quiver and a sword in a scabbard. Added red is used for the lion’s mane and Heracles’ tunic; added white is used for arrow-heads at the top of the scabbard, the lion’s teeth, the sword handle and parts of the kithara.

In front of Heracles and facing him stands the goddess Athena. She is identifiable by her helmet and snake-covered aegis which she wears over a long dress (peplos). Her helmet extends beyond the frame into the scene on the shoulder. She carries a long spear. Her skin is painted in white, indicating that she is a woman; added red is used to decorate her aegis and skirt.

Behind her stands the bearded god Hermes, who is identifiable by his traveller’s cap (petasos) and cloak (chlamys), winged shoes, and staff (caduceus). Added red is used to decorate the brim of his hat, his cloak and shoes as well as his beard.

Behind Heracles is another woman, who may be Hebe, the goddess of youth, and Heracles’ third and final wife. She wears a cloak (himation) over a long dress (peplos) and holds two long leafy branches. Her skin is painted in added white to indicate her gender, and added red decorates her clothing.

The figural scene on the body is surrounded on the bottom by a band of lotus decoration, and on the sides by two double ivy leaf patterns. A single line marks the distinction between the body and the shoulder, and a band of egg and dart runs along the top of the shoulder scene at the juncture with the neck of the vase. Above the foot there is a band of rays.

Commentary

There are nearly 40 examples of Attic vases featuring scenes, like this one, of Heracles as a musician in the presence of Athena (almost always) and other Olympian gods, usually with the kithara (lyre), but occasionally with the aulos (flute) instead. These all date from approximately the last quarter of the sixth century B.C.E. (c. 530-500). The theme of Heracles as a musician found only on this group of Athenian vases in early Greek art, although it does reappear in later periods.

Following John Boardman, scholars generally agree that the popularity of the Heracles-as-musician scene type should be associated with the reorganisation of Athens’ great annual festival to Athena, the Panathenaia, to include musical competitions and recitals of Homer by the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons. Other examples of the scene type (e.g. Boulogne 78, BAPD 320179) include the detail of Heracles stepping up onto a platform, which more directly evokes the festival performance context.

This interpretation is further strengthened by one example of the theme (Tarquinia 679, BAPD 39) where Heracles, holding his lyre, approaches a burning altar behind which stands Athena. This detail suggests that the motif of Heracles as musician is associated with the worship of Athena, with the Panathenaia being her single most important festival at Athens. Exactly what context we should imagine Heracles is performing in, however, is not obvious, especially given his divine but variable audience, and we cannot assume that it is in any literal sense the Panathenaia.

The significance of Heracles in particular occupying the role of musician is not entirely clear, but it may reflect the centrality of the hero in the Athenian tyrants’ propaganda. In any case, the scene type situates Heracles as a hero who embodies both athletic and musical excellence and thereby the ideal of a well-rounded Athenian education.

These depictions are somewhat at odds with the more usual conception of Heracles as a particularly uncultured and unartistic warrior; on a somewhat later cup (skyphos) attributed to the Pistoxenos Painter (Schwerin 708, BAPD 211358), for example, a scene of Heracles’ half-brother Iphicles studiously practicing on the lyre with his teacher is pointedly contrasted with a scene on the other side depicting Heracles holding a spear with his back turned to an old woman holding a lyre, presumably encouraging the reluctant hero to practice like his brother. We should also think of the story that Heracles killed his music teacher Linus in a fit of rage in frustration at his lack of musical ability (depicted, for example, on a cup attributed to Douris, Munich J371, BAPD 205174).

See further:
John Boardman, “Herakles, Peisistratos and Eleusis,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 95 (1975): pp. 1-12, pp. 10-11.
Charles Dugas, “Héraclès Mousicos,” Revue des Études Grecques 57.269-73 (1944): pp. 61-70.
Musée départemental des Antiquités Rouen, Hommes, dieux et héros de la Grèce (Rouen, 1982): pp. 248-50.
Konrad Schauenberg, “Herakles Musikos,” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Insituts 94 (1979): pp. 49-76.
Alan H. Shapiro, Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens (Mainz am Rhein, 1989): pp. 159-60.
Alexandra Goulaki Voutira, “Heracles and Music,” RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter 17.1 (1992): pp. 2-14.

Publication History

• Art of the Ancient World, auct. cat. (January 1995), no. 94
• James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 25-27
• Biography of a Vase, Persephone (Hollis, NH, Fall 2006), Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 46-48; pp. 46-47, ill.

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3400 Greek, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 10/03/2023

Subjects and Contexts

• Collection Highlights
• Google Art Project

Verification Level