Other Images

Deianeira and Heracles

On this red figure pelike from Athens (ca. 440-430 B.C.) Deianeira gives Herakles a cloak treated with what she believes is a love potion. The treatment, made from the centaur Nessos’ blood (and poisoned by Herakles’ arrow dipped in the blood of the Lernaean Hydra), instead bursts into flames and kills Herakles.

See 17th c. A.D. statue of the Death of Heracles.