Inscribed on top of the mouth "one of the prizes from Argive Hera"

This hydria, like Greek art in all its forms, is marked by clearly defined parts organized into a harmonious well-proportioned whole. The plain body swells gently to the shoulder zone, which turns inward with a soft, cushionlike curve. The shoulder is decorated with a simple shallow tongue pattern that echoes the vertical ribbing on the foot. The neck shoots up from the shoulder to a flaring mouth from which the bust of a woman seems to emerge. The figure belongs to the vertical handle of the hydria. She wears a peplos. Her serene face is framed by carefully detailed hair. Rotelles with a rosette pattern give a semblance of outstretched hands. We know from the inscription on the mouth that this hydria was a prize awarded at games for the goddess Hera at her sanctuary in Argos in the Peloponnisos.

Inscription: On the rim, in Argive dialect and script, stating that this hydria was "one of the prizes from Argive Hera"

Said to have been found in the Peloponnese (Mertens 1985, p. 40).

Acquired January 29, 1926, purchased from Jacob Hirsch, New York.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1926. "The Classical Collection: Rearrangement and Important Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 21(4), pt. II: pp. 8-9, fig. 3.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1927. "Recent Accessions in the Classical Department: Vases and Bronzes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 22(1): p. 20.

Lamb, W. 1929. Greek and Roman Bronzes. London: Methuen, p. 163, pl. LIX, a.

Jeffery, L. H. 1961. The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece: A Study of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and Its Development from the Eight to the Fifth Centuries B.C. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 169, no. 26, pl. 29.

Diehl, E. 1964. Die Hydria: Formgeschichte und Verwendung im Kult des Altertums. Mainz: P. von Zabern, p. 216, no. B78.

Amandry, P. 1971. "Collection Paul Canellopoulos (I)." Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 95: 615.

Mertens, Joan R. 1985. "Greek Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43(2): no. 23, pp. 4-5, 13, 39-41, 45.

Amandry, P. 2002. "Hydries argiennes." In Essays in Honor of Dietrich von Bothmer, edited by A. J. Clark and J. Gaunt. Amsterdam: A. Pierson, pp. 29-32, pls. 1, 2a.

Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 122, pp. 112, 429.

Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 96, fig. 36.