3-045-299 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Attic Black-Figure Lip Cup, about 550 BC. Wine Cup with Herakles Fighting the Nemean Lion. Additional Info: The hero Herakles wrestles the Nemean Lion on both sides of this Athenian black-figure Little Master cup. The Nemean Lion was a monstrous beast sent by the goddess Hera to ravage the countryside around Nemea in southern Greece. Since the lion had an impenetrable hide, Herakles had to strangle it in the first of his twelve labors. Little Master cups, introduced around 560 BC and so-named for their detailed miniature decoration, had a taller, slimmer shape than earlier cups.