Existing comment:
Greek
Black-Figure Amphora (Storage Vessel), 540 BC
Herakles was the most popular hero of antiquity and was frequently worshipped as a god. He is best known for the twelve labors he performed to atone for killing his wife and children in a fit of madness. His first labor was to slay a fearsome lion that was devouring the people of Nemea (near Corinth). Since swords and arrows could not penetrate the lion's hide, Herakles killed it with a club and used the beast's own claws to skin it; afterward, he word the skin as both a trophy and protective garment. |