FOOTNOTES-06c

HERA BREASTFEEDING HERAKLES

ALCMENE’S DECEPTION OF HERA

A lekythos was a jar made for storing oil.

In the scheme of Greek pots, this is a fairly late example (350 BC). The ones we typically think of as “Greek Vases” are mostly from Athens around 500 BC. This was found in Puglia in Italy, one of the many places into which Greek culture expanded.

This later style is much more detailed and features a lot of white glaze, in addition to the ochre clay color and black glaze.

The individual artist’s names are rarely known. Whoever painted this pot is known by the name “The Suckling Painter.” From the British Museum: “Trendall called him the Suckling Painter naming him after scenes he painted of Hera suckling the infant Herakles and Aphrodite suckling Eros, both on squat lekythoi.”

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about Hera lately. Scholars are re-thinking her traditional simplified characterization as the jealous, shrewish wife of philandering Zeus. That characterization reflects more of the past few hundred years than in the time of Homeric Epics.

The story of Athena and Alcmene deceiving Hera (mentioned by Antinous) is found in Pausanias’s “Description of Greece",” written in the 2nd Century AD (Book ix / 25)

SEE THIS LEKYTHOS ON THE BRITISH MUSEUM’S WEBSITE