ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA EARLY 5TH CENTURY B.C.

This small scarab is expertly engraved with Herakles battling the Nemean Lion. The beast is rearing with its forepaws wrapped around the hero and its head turned back. Herakles, wearing the lionskin, grasps the beast with one arm and holds a sword in one hand. The scene is framed by a hatched border. The beetle is simply cut with ridged carination and small incised v-shaped winglets.

The scene is nearly identical to one on a scarab in Paris attributed to an artist near the Semon Master and Epimenes. It is thought to be from western Greece, based on the form of beetle, and the scarab presented here must be by the same hand (see no. 271 in Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems). Of the scarab in Paris, Boardman (op. cit, p. 98) observes that the subject is remarkable as it is a variation of the canonical myth and its usual treatment in art. The Nemean lion was impervious to ordinary weapons, so Herakles eventually strangled it, then flayed it using its own claws, and forever after wore its pelt for protection, his most recognizable attribute. Here Herakles already wears the lion skin even though the combat is still in progress, and he attempts to slay it with a sword. This can be perhaps viewed as an example of continuous narration, where an artist combines different points of the myth into one scene in order to more fully tell the story.