Cleveland Museum of Art

Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag

Date

c. 700 BCE

Medium

ceramic

Culture

Etruscan, likely made at Vulci

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This bird-shaped askos (oil vessel), with a tall filling spout and a pierced beak for pouring, perhaps held perfumed oil for a funerary function. Although the shape likely stems from Italian tradition, the abundantly painted geometric decoration, covering nearly every available surface, derives originally from Greece. Thus scholars have suggested that an immigrant Greek potter working in Etruria may have made the vessel. The sole narrative scene shows a man with a spear leading an antlered animal. If not an anonymous hunter, this could be the earliest known representation of the hero Herakles performing his third labor: capturing the golden-antlered Keryneian hind, or female deer. This askos may feature the earliest known representation of Herakles's third labor, the Keryneian hind.

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