PLATE XXII
Herakles and the Hydra
Herakles, wearing the protecting lion-skin, in his left hand grasps one of the hydra's many heads and is about to cut it off with the sword held in his right hand. On the opposite side of the monster the helmeted Iolaos is imitating his master's manner of attack. With its free heads the hydra is biting fiercely at its assailants. Behind Herakles stand Athene, identified by the branch of olive in her hand, and Hermes. The identity of the three women next Iolaos is unknown. From a black-figured Eretrian amphora of the sixth century b.c., in Athens (Catalogue des vases peints du musée national d'Athenes, Supplement par Georges Nicole, Plate IX). See p. 81.
