Plaque with Heracles and the hydra. Color plate III. Rome (?), 4th century. Bronze with copper and silver inlay

Fragments are missing from the sides and top of the rectangular plaque, but the representation is well preserved. It depicts the second labor of Heracles, in which the hero battles the hydra of Lerna. The hydra, the figure of Heracles, and his club are inlaid in various metals. The club and the five heads of the hydra are silver, the scales of her body are inlaid in copper and two shades of silver. (The bronze ground now shows through where some of the original inlay has been lost.) The figure of Heracles is inlaid in copper, with contours and internal modeling indicated by incised lines, some of which are filled with silver; his lion skin is modeled in the same manner.

Heracles kneels with his right leg on the body of the hydra; he grasps one of its heads with his left hand, while brandishing his club with his right. The kneeling posture, adapted from the classical representation of Heracles' struggle with the Cerynean hind, is made visually plausible by the muscular coils of the hydra beneath the hero's right knee. The hydra encircles Heracles' left ankle and actively attacks him with two of its five heads. Two others writhe to the left while Heracles battles with the fifth. Far from victorious over the monster, Heracles is depicted as beginning his struggle, presumably by subduing one head at a time. The size and muscularity of the hydra combined with its bright coloration make it visually equal to the figure of Heracles.

As in pieces from Kaiseraugst (nos. 126, 251), the plaque is an example of the Late Antique taste for coloristic effects in metalwork. Gilding and niello inlay are the most common techniques used to achieve the effect. The metal inlay technique of the Heracles plaque results in a four-color design similar to that seen in the Heracles plate (Matthies, 1914, pp. 104-129, pis. vii-ix). Pieces of similar technique are known from North Africa. Numerous stylistic parallels exist for the bronze plaque. The standing figure that decorates the bowl of a large spoon (no. 316) closely resembles the Heracles figure. Details of physiognomy and a convention of internal modeling through engraved circular and oval forms, common to both, can be matched to a group of fourth- century pieces in various metals (see Wixom, 1970).

The Heracles plaque may be assumed to have been one of twelve depicting the canonical series of labors. The object to which the plaques were attached can only be conjectured. Bibliography: Weitzmann, 1973, pp. 6, 12, 24, 31, fig. 48; Kleinbauer (1), 1976, pp. 22-23, 27-29, pi. p. 26.