Black-Figure Hydria (Water Vessel): Frontal Quadriga (Body); Theseus and Minotaur (Shoulder)

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Although their subjects differ, the three fields of figured decoration on this vessel relate to one another metaphorically through the theme of victory. Just as Theseus defeats the Minotaur on the shoulder, two lions converge on a deer in the predella (the small, lowermost panel). In the largest panel, victory is still to come, presumably for all three warriors shown: one in the chariot behind his driver, and one on foot on either side. Somewhat unusually, two of the warriors look directly out at the viewer, their frontal faces an interesting complement to the much more common frontal chariot. This type of water vessel, a hydria , takes its name from hudor , Greek for water (and still familiar in the English root hydro ).