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Scarab with Hercle/Herakles throttling the Nemean lion
Italic, Etruscan
Classical Period
early 4th century B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Dimensions
Legacy dimension: 0.016 L.
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number27.723
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 089 (1920; 2002, additional published references).
DescriptionDark orange-red carnelian. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise; set in a modern gold mount. Hercle/Herakles, in frontal view but head in profile, throttling the Nemean lion at right. At left, a club. A bow between the hero’s legs. Cable border. An Etruscan inscription “Hercle” in negative clockwise from the left. The back, originally carved as a beetle, was cut off. A large chip missing at right.
InscriptionsThe inscription reads as follows: HERCLE[S] (Etruscan)
ProvenanceBy about 1899: with Edward Perry Warren (according to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 89: Bought from an Italian about 1899.); April 5, 1926: loaned to MFA by Edward Perry Warren (as 86.26); November 17, 1927: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 161,000.00 (this figure is the total price for MFA 27.647-27.761)