Krater with Heracles Wrestling Antaeus

c. 515–510 BCE

Red-figure terracotta, 45.5 cm high · Louvre, Paris

A wine-mixing bowl signed by Euphronios, one of the first great red-figure painters, made in Athens and found in Etruria. The Louvre bought it with the Campana collection in 1861.

Heracles kneels and strangles Antaeus, who is half-lying on the ground.
Compare the faces: Antaeus’s eyes roll back and his teeth show; Heracles stays calm.
Heracles’s neat curls are built from tiny raised dots of clay.
The scene appeared on a Greek stamp for the 1906 Athens games.

The giant Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Earth, drew strength from touching the ground. In the poems Heracles lifted him into the air to defeat him; the painter shows a different moment.

Red-figure: A vase technique, invented in Athens about 530 BCE, in which figures are left in the red clay and the background painted black.
Krater: A large bowl for mixing wine with water.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain