Bilingual vases are decorated in the older black-figure technique on one side and the new red-figure technique on the other. They were made in Athens for a short period around 530-510 BCE, as painters experimented with red-figure, which allowed more detailed drawing of anatomy and drapery.
The first labor of Herakles was to kill the Nemean lion, whose hide could not be pierced by weapons. Herakles wrestled and strangled the beast, and afterward wore its skin as a cloak, a scene that was one of the most popular in Athenian vase painting.
