Samian ware flask from Southern Gaul, 1st century CE, depicting Heracles killing Laomedon, King of Troy, at the Museo Civico Archeologico della Valle Sabbia in Gavardo (Brescia)

Samian ware flask from Southern Gaul, 1st century CE, depicting Heracles killing Laomedon, King of Troy, at the Museo Civico Archeologico della Valle Sabbia in Gavardo (Brescia).
In one version of mythology, Laomedon, king of Troy, was the father of Ganymede. Zeus fell in love with the beautiful boy and, disguised as an eagle, kidnapped the child. Laomedon grieved so much for his son Zeus sent Hermes to Laomedon with two magnificent horses so swift they could run across water. Hermes also assured the king that Ganymede would become immortal and would thereafter be the distinguished cup bearer for the gods. Sometime later, Laomedon began constructing walls around his city of Troy and promised a reward to Apollo and Poseidon for their assistance. But after the walls were completed Laomedon refused to give them the promised payment. So the gods, in their anger, sent a pestilence and a sea monster to ravage the land. An oracle revealed to Laomedon that the only way to save Troy would be to sacrifice his daughter Hesione. So Hesione was bound to a rock to await her death. But the Greek hero Heracles, who happened to be at Troy, offered to kill the sea monster and rescue Hesione in exchange for Laomedon’s divine horses. But, as with Apollo and Poseidon, once Heracles had killed the monster and saved Hesione, Laomedon refused to give up his magical horses. Heracles left Troy and then returned with a band of warriors, captured the city, and killed Laomedon and all his sons except Priam and Tithonus.


Image: Samian ware flask from Southern Gaul, 1st century CE, depicting Heracles killing Laomedon, King of Troy. Herakles (on the left) is about to kill Laomedon, king of Troy (on the right). Behind Herakles stands Hesione, raising her right hand to her chin in a sign of melancholy. Side A from a terra sigillata flask by the workkshop of Felix (Southern Gaul), late 1st–early 2nd century CE. From the necropolis of Lugone in Salò at the Museo Civico Archeologico della Valle Sabbia in Gavardo (Brescia). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen (Jastrow).

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