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Heracles suckling Hera, with Aphrodite & Iris | Greek vase, Apulian red figure lekythos

K4.11 THE SUCKLING OF HERAKLES

Museum Collection: British Museum, London, UK
Catalogue No.: London F107
Beazley Archive No.: N/A
Ware: Apulian Red Figure
Shape: Lekythos
Painter: Attributed to the Suckling Painter
Date: ca 360 - 350 BC
Period: Late Classical / Early Hellenistic

SUMMARY

The infant Herakles suckles on the breast of the sleeping goddess Hera. The myth recounts that when she awakened to discover the bastard child, she shoved him away and her milk was split across the heavens to form the Milky Way.

To Hera's left stands Aphrodite, holding a flower bloom, who has conspired with Zeus in the suckling. Hera's own handmaiden, the winged Iris, meanwhile gazes away distracted.

ARTICLESHera, Aphrodite, Iris

 
 
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