NARRATOR: This vessel is a hydria, or water jug. It takes its name from the Greek word for water, which is *hydros*.

In the center is a lively presentation of the myth of the hero, Herakles, slaying the multi-headed hydra, a poisonous water snake that ravaged the Greek countryside. Herakles is on the right, attacking the hydra with a club. A crab sent by the goddess Hera nips at his heel to distract him. On the left, his nephew Iolaus cuts off one of the hydra's heads and uses the fire between his legs to cauterize the wound. Iolaus must act quickly because every time he cuts off one head, two grow back in its place.

MARY LOUISE HART: The artist has actually helped himself show the numerous heads of the hydra by painting them alternately red, black, red, black. It makes the hydra's movement show in a much more powerful way.

NARRATOR: Mary Louise Hart, assistant curator of antiquities.

MARY LOUISE HART: The painter knows how to use color to achieve his maximum effect, and it's why this pot is a particularly excellent product of Etruscan pottery.

NARRATOR: This hydria was made around 525 B.C. in the Etruscan city of Caere, in modern-day Tuscany. The workshop that produced it lasted only one generation.