Hercules Killing Nessus

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Hercules Killing Nessus

Artist Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500-1550)

Date1542

DimensionsH: 2 in. (5.1 cm); W: 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm)

Mediumengraving

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1923.3197

Not on View

Label TextIn contrast to the print by Heinrich Aldegrever of the same subject shown nearby, Sebald Beham depicts Nessus as a centaur in keeping with the common telling of the myth. As with many beasts in mythology, centaurs owed their existence to a coupling of a mortal with a god. While dining with Zeus and Hera and other Olympian gods, Ixion, the king of the Lapithae (a mythical race reputed to live in Thessaly), was consumed with lust for Hera, the wife of Zeus. In his delirium, Ixion coupled with a cloud (Nephele) that Zeus had created in the likeness of Hera. From this union the race of the Centaurs (part human and part horse) was born. As punishment for his impudence, Ixion was perpetually bound to a fiery wheel that revolves in the night sky.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Storytelling in Miniature, October 7, 2011-March 4, 2012.