This amphora is decorated in the red-figure style, where slip (liquified clay) that turned black during firing was applied to the background and outlines of figures, while the figures themselves were left in the natural red-orange color of the clay. The front of this vessel depicts Athena, goddess of wisdom, pouring wine for Herakles (Latin Hercules), the mythical hero who is best known for his strength and the Twelve Labors. Both figures are identifiable by the symbols they bear: Herakles wears a lion skin from his slaying of the Nemean Lion and rests his left hand on a club, his weapon of choice. Athena wears her aegis (a protective breastplate fringed by snakes) with a gorgoneion (an apotropaic emblem of the head of Medusa); the Attic-style helmet and spear allude to her role as the goddess of war. This scene may be a representation of the apotheosis of Herakles, with Athena welcoming the now-immortal hero to Olympus after his mortal death.
On the back side of the amphora, a maenad (a female follower of Dionysos) serves her god, filling his kantharos (cup) with wine from an oinochoe (pitcher), rendered frontally. The god carries his thyrsos, a giant fennel stalk topped with ivy leaves, in one hand, and a wreath crowns his long, curly hair. The handles are black with ivy leaves painted onto the side faces, and the neck of the vessel features a palmette-lotus band on the front and a band of slanted palmettes on the back.
