The oracle of Apollo at Delphi directed Kadmos to follow a cow that he would find and to establish a city where she lay down. That site became Thebes, in the region of Boeotia. The only available spring was guarded by a dragon born of Ares, the god of war. With the help of Athena, Kadmos killed the dragon—here depicted as a snake—and from its teeth a population of armed warriors sprang up. Kadmos advances with a hydria to fetch water and a stone and spears to kill the snake. The identity of the woman is unknown; she may be a personification of the city or possibly his future wife, Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares.
No image available
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to the Cassel Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440–430 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 13 7/8 in. (35.3 cm) diameter of mouth 14 5/8 in. (37.1 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1922
Accession Number:22.139.11
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1923. "Athenian Pottery: Recent Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18(11): p. 256.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 132, pp. 166–67, pls. 131, 171, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 4. p. 331, fig. 396, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. pp. 1083, 1682, no. 5, Add. 1, pp. 1083–86, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Harmonia," p. 413, no. 4, pl. 238, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1990. Vol. 5: Herakles-Kenchrias. "Hermes," p. 342, no. 673, pl. 254; "Kadmos I," p. 867, no. 17, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Shapiro, Harvey Alan. 1993. Personifications in Greek Art: The Representation of Abstract Concepts, 600-400 B.C.. pp. 99–101, 105, 240, fig. 44, Zürich: Akanthus.
Gill, David and Mr. Michael Vickers. 1995. "They were Expendable: Greek Vases in the Etruscan Tomb." Revue des études Anciennes, 97: p. 229 n. 42.
Neumann, Gunter. 1996. "Beitrage zum Kyprischen XVI." Kadmos: Zeitschrift für vor- und frühgrieschische Epigraphik, 35: pp. 39–48.
Padgett, J. Michael. 2017. The Berlin Painter and His World : Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. p. 247 n. 7, New Haven: Yale University Press.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
