Deianeira’s abduction by the centaur Nessos

The painting represents the attempted abduction of Deianeira, Heracles’ wife, by the centaur Nessos, while the young couple was crossing the river guarded by that monster. The identification of the scene is certain since the male figure wears the skin of the Nemean Lion, Heracles’ identifying element since early Greek vase painting. It is a mythic episode that throughout history was extremely addressed by poets, dramatists and artists, all of them influenced by Ovid (Metamorphoses, 9.98-133). In Greek literature, it should be emphasized Sophocles’ Trachinian Women (of uncertain dating but no way after 431 BC), a tragedy about Heracles’ death by means of a loving filter containing blood from the centaur’s wound, which was kept by his
wife.