Molded baby Hercules appliqué
Molded baby Hercules appliqué
Place of OriginEgypt or Italy
Date1st century BCE - 1st century CE
Dimensions1 3/8 × 1 3/8 × 1/8 × 1 1/4 in. (3.5 × 3.5 × 0.3 × 3.2 cm)
MediumMonochrome mold-pressed glass.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.1508
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
DescriptionHercules as a child strangling two snakes.
Round disk with relief of the babe inside relief oval frame. Posed frontally with one arm extended and one bent, the pudgy/cherubic body is semi-draped, with the drapery ends blowing out behind the figure. Head turned to the right, with short curly locks. Parody of common adult Hercules type.
Label TextHerakles, or Hercules, was destined for glory from a surprisingly young age. Although Herakles was certainly not the first of Zeus’s illegitimate children, Zeus’s wife Hera held a particular contempt for him, and he became the target of many unsuccessful assassination attempts. Hera first made her move against the hero when he was a mere baby, sending two serpents to kill him in his sleep. The son of Zeus awoke and used his characteristic super-strength to choke the snakes to death. This moment, immortalized in this glass appliqué, represents the origin of the myth and the beginning of the troubled relationship between Herakles and Hera. Such appliqués were often attached as decoration to the wall of a glass vessel.
The Acheloos Painter, Leagros Group
about 510 BCE
1st century CE
425-350 BCE
n.d.
1st century CE
2nd - 1st century BCE
1st century BCE - 4th century CE
1st century BCE - 4th century CE
Late 2nd to early 3rd century CE
about 130 CE
1st century BCE - 1st century CE
Probably 1st-2nd century CE
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