Hercules Fighting against the Centaurs

By the time Beham completed this print, the myth of Hercules was a well-established artistic subject in the North, having been revived in Italy a generation prior. The tale had been retold by writers like Giovanni Boccaccio and allegorized by humanists such as Joducus Badius and Raphael Regius. This print is a part of a series titled The Labours of Hercules and illustrates a battle against the Centaurs (composite creatures, part human and part horse) during the fourth labour – the capture of the Erymanthian Boar. The hero receives assistance from other men, a detail that is not to be found in other variations of the tale. Instead, this alteration is reminiscent of a battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, a classical emblem of the struggle between mankind’s rational and animalistic sides. Not only does this print depict Hercules as a slayer of monsters, but perhaps suggests that his life-long struggles are a metaphor for our own inner battles.