Minneapolis Institute of Art

Hercules Slaying the Hydra, From the Labors of Hercules

Sebald Beham

Date: 1545
Medium: Engraving
Department: European Art
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Art

The legendary strongman Hercules was born to the god Zeus and a mortal named Alcmena. This union so incensed Zeus’s wife Hera that she made life almost unbearable for the hero. Her ire resulted in him undertaking a series of tasks, known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Sebald Beham challenged his audience’s knowledge of the classical text, engraving three actual labors and nine scenes of Hercules’ exploits before and after his labors. In this labor, Hercules had to destroy the many-headed hydra. As the hero litters the ground with heads, his nephew Iolaus burns the necks so the heads won’t grow back. Germany, Europe

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