This mosaic depicts an episode from the story of the Argonauts. In his poem Agronautica, the 3rd-century B.C. Greek poet Apollonius of Rhodes describes it as follows: "one water nymph had just swum up to the surface of the sweet-flowing spring. Before her she saw young Hylas in a blushing glow of sweet gracefulness and beauty." This poem was translated into Latin in the 1st century B.C. by the scholar and encyclopaedist Marcus Tenecius Varronus and was very popular in Rome.This mosaic was found in 1853 outside Rome, alongside the baths of Platina, wife of Emperor Trajan. It was acquired for the Hermitage by Nicholas I in 1856.