Nessus (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Nessus was a famous centaur who was killed by Heracles, and whose poisoned blood in turn killed Heracles. He was the son of Centauros. He fought in the battle with the Lapiths and became a ferryman on the river Euenos.
Heracles carrying his son Hyllus looks at the centaur Nessus, who is about to carry Deianira across the river on his back. Antique fresco from Pompeii
Guido Reni, Abduction of Deianira, 1620–21, Louvre Museum.
Enrique Simonet, Nessus and Deianira, 1888.
2006 picture of Laurent Marqueste's statue of Nessus struck by an arrow while carrying off Deianeira
Centaur
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A centaur, occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version of the myth, the centaurs were named after Centaurus, and, through his brother Lapithes, were kin to the legendary tribe of the Lapiths.
Centaur
Centauromachy, tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, c. 480 BC
"Battle of Centaurs and Wild Beasts" is estimated to have been made between 120 and 130 A.D. for the dining-room of Hadrian's Villa . The mosaic now resides in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Germany.
Painting by Sebastiano Ricci, of centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae