Game Piece with Hercules Feeding Diomedes to His Horses | Dickinson College Commentaries

A circular game piece decorated with a bearded Heracles holding Diomedes upside down by his ankle as four horses bite into him. Heracles and Diomedes are dressed in mid-calf length tunics. Diomedes grasps one of the horses by its neck as it attacks his face. A second bites his arm, the remaining two his leg. The horses' heads look more like dogs; their coats are rendered by lines of etched squares. A geometric border is covered around the edge.

Annotations

Ivory game piece showing Heracles feeding Diomedes to his horses. Made in Cologne, Germany. Metropolitan Museum of Art 16.106.

Online Resources

Metropolitan Museum of Art 16.106.

Subjects

Horses of Diomedes

Type

Image

License

Creative Commons Attribution

Properties

Date

ca. 1150 CE

Culture

Medium

Dimensions

diameter 2 3/4 x 13/16 in. (7 x 2 cm)

Location

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image Credit

Metropolitan Museum of Art