The Wykehamist
The Wykehamist’ s Treasury
Herakles in the Underworld – A Closer Look at the Athenian Hydria( Gr. 16)
Among the many compelling artefacts in the Winchester College Treasury’ s Ancient Greek Pottery exhibition, the Athenian black-figure hydria( Gr. 16) stands out as an exemplar of narrative sophistication, artistic skill, and cultural resonance. Dated to between 510 – 490 BC, and painted in the mature black-figure technique, this water jar offers a vivid tableau of myth, religion, and technical mastery- qualities that collectively enrich our understanding of early Classical Greek pottery and its evolving role in society.
This hydria depicts the climactic twelfth labour of Herakles: the capture of Kerberos, the fearsome guardian of the underworld. The scene is densely populated with major mythological figures. Herakles dominates the frame, clad in his trademark lion-skin and armed with a club, leading the two-headed Kerberos with a chain. To his left stands Athena, immediately identifiable by her helmet, spear, and a shield marked with a bull’ s head: these are attributes that affirm her status as the goddess of wisdom and war. Hermes, with his winged sandals and kerykeion( herald’ s staff), gestures toward Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, who is depicted standing at the threshold of Hades’ palace. The entrance itself is elegantly marked by a Doric column and architectural elements suggesting an architrave.
The vase’ s technique exemplifies the peak of the black-figure tradition. Artists incised detail lines into the clay before firing, allowing for precision in rendering features such as Kerberos’ fur and the folds in Athena’ s garments. These delicate incisions were then enhanced with red and white accents, which, though partially faded with time, hint at the vessel’ s original vibrancy. It is through these techniques that ancient artisans gave enduring visual life to the mythological world.
Historically, the hydria’ s iconography reveals multiple layers of meaning. Herakles’ journey to and from the underworld resonated strongly with Greek religious beliefs about death, rebirth, and heroic endurance. That Persephone is included among the figures,
which is unusual in depictions of this labour, may suggest a deliberate focus on transition between life and death, fitting for a vessel likely used in ritual or ceremonial contexts. Water jars like this one were central to domestic life, but their refined decoration and mythological themes also made them suitable for display or as grave offerings.
The provenance of the hydria also situates it in a broader narrative of classical collecting and scholarship. Excavated near Vulci, Italy, around 1830, the vessel was part of Lucien Bonaparte’ s collection before being acquired by collectors such as Samuel Rogers and William Henry Forman. It ultimately reached Winchester College through the generosity of Arthur Kemball Cook. This journey from ancient Athens to a 19thcentury Italian dig and finally to a Hampshire display case exemplifies the layered histories embodied in each artefact on view.
In the context of the broader exhibition- comprising nearly a hundred pieces ranging from early Cycladic ware to red-figure symposium vessels- the hydria offers a focal point for appreciating the narrative power of pottery in ancient Greece. It bridges the functional and the ceremonial, the domestic and the divine, serving as a window into both artistic practice and mythological imagination. That such an object has been so well preserved and richly contextualised is a testament to the Treasury’ s role in sustaining a dialogue between antiquity and contemporary inquiry.
Yash Sawhney( I, 2021-)
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