Heracles’ first Labor: the Nemean Lion by Kleophrades - II
Heracles and the Nemean Lion; at left, the club, upright; above Heracles, his sword in its sheath. These weapons were completely unsuccessful against the invulnerable skin of the beast.
The first Labor was to bring Eurystheus the skin of the Nemean Lion, a monstrous beast that was terrorizing the foothills of Nemea in the Argolid. Its pelt was invulnerable to weapons, so Heracles choked it to death with his bare hands and skinned it with its own claws. Eurystheus was terrified when he saw the size of the beast, so he had a great bronze jar set in the earth to serve as his hiding place if Heracles should come near again, and from now on he employed a herald, Copreus, to carry all his instructions for future Labors. Heracles ever afterwards wore the lion’s pelt as a trophy of his first great task, with the beast’s scalp serving as a helmet.
CAV / CAVI @ www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
Jennifer R. March. “Dictionary of Classical Mythology”
Athenian red figured kalpis
Attributed to Kleophrades Painter by Beazley
490 - 480 BC
From Cerveteri, Rome
Rome, Villa Giulia, Museo Nazionale Etrusco, Inv. No. 50398
Heracles’ first Labor: the Nemean Lion by Kleophrades - II
Heracles and the Nemean Lion; at left, the club, upright; above Heracles, his sword in its sheath. These weapons were completely unsuccessful against the invulnerable skin of the beast.
The first Labor was to bring Eurystheus the skin of the Nemean Lion, a monstrous beast that was terrorizing the foothills of Nemea in the Argolid. Its pelt was invulnerable to weapons, so Heracles choked it to death with his bare hands and skinned it with its own claws. Eurystheus was terrified when he saw the size of the beast, so he had a great bronze jar set in the earth to serve as his hiding place if Heracles should come near again, and from now on he employed a herald, Copreus, to carry all his instructions for future Labors. Heracles ever afterwards wore the lion’s pelt as a trophy of his first great task, with the beast’s scalp serving as a helmet.
CAV / CAVI @ www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
Jennifer R. March. “Dictionary of Classical Mythology”
Athenian red figured kalpis
Attributed to Kleophrades Painter by Beazley
490 - 480 BC
From Cerveteri, Rome
Rome, Villa Giulia, Museo Nazionale Etrusco, Inv. No. 50398