Heracles’ ability to endure human suffering makes him one of the most emotionally alluring heroes. His suffering is foreshadowed on this amphora. Together on the left, Heracles and his second wife Deianira share an affectionate moment. The centaur Nessus is looking back towards them and is preparing to throw stones in Heracles’ direction. On the far right, a bearded man, possibly Deianira’s father, looks on.
According to myth, Nessus attempted to rape Deianira after carrying her across a flooded river, but Heracles shot the centaur with a poisoned arrow. As he lay dying, Nessus gave Deianira a potion, assuring her that if Heracles consumed it he would remain faithful.
Later, when Heracles fell for a foreign princess, Deianira gave her husband a robe soaked in the centaur’s potion which was in fact poisonous. Pleading for death, Heracles threw himself on a funeral pyre. When his mortal suffering was brought to an end, the gods carried him to Olympus to be deified.
