Upon examining one of the main sides of the skyphos, we see a bearded Hermes, identified by his petasus and his winged sandals, standing and playing his pipe-like musical instrument. His garment falls about him in folds indicated by the lines of incision on the fabric, and his head is somewhat thrown back, thereby giving the impression of relaxation and leisure. Herakles himself is provided with clear symbols of his identity-his lion-skin and his club, and he is sitting on a pillar-like object, one hand holding out a cup while the other is raised upright, with the palm towards the viewer, in a gesture, perhaps of thanks. Then there is the other immortal in the picture, Athena, who is pouring out wine for the seated Herakles, and she too is seen with such characteristic trademarks as her helmet. Importantly, both Herakles and Athena are bare-footed-an indication of their immortal status, and this is one of the details, which serve to define the nature of the scene more sharply. It is not simply a representation of Athena offering a drink to a resting Herakles, it is Athena pouring wine as a reward for the newly apotheosized hero.

Then, when I looked at other Greek vases of Herakles found in the Perseus database by conducting a Browser search for "Legendary People-Herakles" on vases, I found that the portrayal of this final stage in the mythology of the hero is indeed a popular theme for vase painters, and we see another example of it in an Attic red-figure kylix¹ dated between 490 BCE and 470 BCE. This Late Archaic/Early Classical piece, attributed to Douris as its painter and Python as its potter, has a strikingly similar representation in the tondo as the painting on the skyphos discussed above. The four views² in Perseus amply demonstrate this observation. The circular composition of a tondo has always presented the painter with a higher level of difficulty than usual because of the challenge of achieving fluidity and naturalism within an awkward workspace. However, with the introduction of the red-figure style, artists were given greater flexibility, thus enabling them to refine their tondo painting, and in the kylix here, we see an early experiment with this new style of painting.

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