48 ROMAN BRONZE GROUP OF A NEREID RIDING A KETOS The semi-nude nymph is seated on the back of the goat-headed sea monster, her cape billowing above her head; on an integrally cast rectangular base. Probably a furniture attachment. A rare type. 3rd-4th century AD. H. 3 1/4 in.(8.3 cm.); L. 4 in. (10.2 cm.) Ex J.M.E. collection, New York, acquired in Ascona, October, 1996. Cf. LIMC 4, nos. 153 a-c and a similar attachment with a figure of Oceanus in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: C. Vermeule & M. Comstock, Sculpture in Stone and Bronze, 1988, no. 71. 49 ROMAN BRONZE HERAKLES BATTLING THE LERNEAN HYDRA A rare subject in bronze. Ca. 1st Century AD. H. 4 in. (10.2 cm.) Ex French collection; J.M.E. collection, New York, acquired at the Drouot, Paris, June 2005. Exhibited: ‘Monsters, Demons, and Winged Beasts: Composite Creatures of the Ancient World’, Carlos Museum of Art, Emory University, Atlanta, February 5-June 19, 2011. The hero’s second labor was to slay this serpent with nine heads, one of which was indestructible. He accomplished this by bashing off the heads with his club as seen here. His companion Iolus would then burn with a torch the neck sinews prohibiting the hydra from regrowing the last head. The immortal head he lopped off and buried by the road. His left leg and tail of the hydra lacking.
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