Fresco of Hercules and his wife Deianira meeting the centaur Nessos From the triclinium (dining room) of the House of the Centaur, Pompeii Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. 9001)
In this fresco, Hercules - holding his infant son Hyllus - and his wife Deianira, standing in their chariot, meet the centaur Nessos, who bows to Hercules. He offers to transport Deianira across the river on his back, and when he does, he attempts to rape her. Hercules shoots Nessos with an arrow dipped in hydra blood. Before he dies, Nessos tells Deianira that his blood could be made into a potion that would make Hercules remain faithful to his wife. Unfortunately, that blood was infused with the hydra’s poison, and when Deianira spread it on Hercules’ lion skin, it burned him so horribly that he threw himself into a funeral pyre. Deianira hanged herself in grief.
