Taken from the Greek word for water, a hydria is a vase with three handles, one vertical and two horizontal, used to collect, carry, and pour water. This vase, made in a workshop in Athens, is coated in black varnish with a metallic sheen and features a scene depicting the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Three deities wearing brightly-coloured clothing and jewellery occupy the centre of the composition. On the left sits Demeter, goddess of Eleusis, sitting holding a sceptre and watching as her daughter Persephone leans two lit torches towards Dionysus, who is seated on the omphalos on the right holding a thyrsus. The gods are surrounded by figures simply portrayed in the background: a maenad is playing the tambourine next to a "king of Eleusis" holding a sceptre and another maenad dancing. A golden wreath of ears of wheat around the neck of the vase and the palmettes on the body add the finishing touches to the decoration.

The scene does not narrate an episode from the myth (Persephone, condemned to spend six months of the year in the Underworld, can only go back to her mother during the remaining months, in an allegory of the renewal of nature), but instead alludes to it by portraying the gods who play a part in the tale. In the 4th century B.C., an era when there was a great passion for mystery cults, Dionysus and his retinue of maenads were often depicted together with the goddesses of Eleusis.

The artist demonstrates an impressive mastery of space and form. The colour palette (pink, green, grey, and white for the skin tones, highlighted with gold), typical of the Kerch style, lends a remarkable intensity to the image.