Herakles’ 6th Labor: The Stymphalian birds - by "The Group E”, workshop of Exekias
The scene painted on this amphora shows Herakles, protected by Nemean lion skin, using a catapult to shoot at the birds which flock around him, their plumage decoratively picked out in added white and red paint.
The Stymphalian birds are rarely depicted in art, probably because they do not offer such an obviously satisfying compositional scheme as a single opponent. The images all present Herakles killing the birds, but the earliest literary source, Peisandros (followed by Apollonios, Argonautika 2.1052–7, and Diodoros 4.13.2), has Herakles just frightening them off with the noise of a rattle. Some later writers, like Apollodoros (2.5.6), compromise by supposing that Herakles shot the birds down with his arrows after first frightening them, with the rattle or with bronze castanets made by the craftsman-god Hephaistos. Exactly what threat the birds presented is unclear: Apollodoros merely cites their large number, Diodoros has them despoiling the surrounding countryside of fruit. Only Pausanias (8.22.4) claims that they were man-eating.
The people of the historical town of Stymphalos in Arkadia seem to have been proud of their link with Herakles, because they alluded to the labor on coins of the late fifth/early fourth century, which have the head of a young Herakles on one side and the head of a water-bird on the other.
Attic black-figured Amphora
High 46 cm. – Diam. 31 cm
Attributed “Group E”, Workshop of Exekias
Ca. 540 BC
Boulogne-sur-mer, Musée, Inv. no. 420/3
Herakles’ 6th Labor: The Stymphalian birds - by "The Group E”, workshop of Exekias
The scene painted on this amphora shows Herakles, protected by Nemean lion skin, using a catapult to shoot at the birds which flock around him, their plumage decoratively picked out in added white and red paint.
The Stymphalian birds are rarely depicted in art, probably because they do not offer such an obviously satisfying compositional scheme as a single opponent. The images all present Herakles killing the birds, but the earliest literary source, Peisandros (followed by Apollonios, Argonautika 2.1052–7, and Diodoros 4.13.2), has Herakles just frightening them off with the noise of a rattle. Some later writers, like Apollodoros (2.5.6), compromise by supposing that Herakles shot the birds down with his arrows after first frightening them, with the rattle or with bronze castanets made by the craftsman-god Hephaistos. Exactly what threat the birds presented is unclear: Apollodoros merely cites their large number, Diodoros has them despoiling the surrounding countryside of fruit. Only Pausanias (8.22.4) claims that they were man-eating.
The people of the historical town of Stymphalos in Arkadia seem to have been proud of their link with Herakles, because they alluded to the labor on coins of the late fifth/early fourth century, which have the head of a young Herakles on one side and the head of a water-bird on the other.
Attic black-figured Amphora
High 46 cm. – Diam. 31 cm
Attributed “Group E”, Workshop of Exekias
Ca. 540 BC
Boulogne-sur-mer, Musée, Inv. no. 420/3