CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

The cameo depicts a three-quarters facing head of a chubby baby with short wavy hair, open mouth, rounded cheeks and articulated eyes, carved in high relief in white over a translucent yellow onyx, with a convex back. The child probably represents the hero Hercules, as the knotted paws of an animal skin can be seen around his neck. There is also no lock of hair running centrally over the head commonly used to indicate a child or Eros. Portraying a baby Hercules wearing the lion skin is perhaps endowing strength to the owner, with a reference to the hero's first labour: his first task in a series of twelve assigned by his cousin and nemesis King Eurythesus was to defeat the Nemean lion, a mythological beast who according to legend had impenetrable fur and claws stronger than mortal weapons. Hercules' succeeded in killing the lion by first stunning it with his club, and then strangling it to death with his super strength.