A Yale lecture from the series Let This Be a Lesson examines Antonio del Pollaiuolo's Hercules and Deianira, a small Renaissance panel showing Hercules drawing his bow on the centaur Nessus as he abducts Hercules's bride Deianira. The speaker walks through why the painting is prized, its vigorous figures and sweeping landscape, before turning to the myth behind the image. Deianira is saved in this scene, but the lecture traces what happens after the canvas ends: Nessus's dying trick leaves Hercules with a poisoned robe that will kill him in agony. The talk asks what it means to look at a single frozen moment of triumph when the viewer knows, or does not know, the horrible sequel already set in motion. Close visual analysis of composition and gesture is paired with the full Greek myth to show how classical subject matter carries meanings a purely formal reading would miss.