Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Megara.
The gallery
Krater of the Madness of Heracles (Madrid Krater)
Asteas, c. 350–320 BCE
A red-figure calyx krater from Paestum, signed by the painter Asteas, this is one of the most celebrated depictions of the madness of Heracles and the only ancient image to name Megara by inscription within the scene. Driven mad by Hera, the hero hurls one of his sons onto a pyre already heaped with the family's burning possessions, believing the boy to be a child of his enemy Eurystheus. At the right, Megara recoils in terror, clutching her breast and tearing at her hair as she lunges toward the door of the house, while the goddess Mania, the personification of frenzy, hovers above. Every figure is identified by an accompanying inscription. The vase, 55 cm high, was found near Salerno and is now in the Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid (inv. 11094).
Mosaic Panel Depicting the Madness of Heracles (Hercules Furens)
Unknown (Roman), 3rd–4th century CE
A Roman floor mosaic from the Villa of Torre de Palma near Monforte in Lusitania, illustrating the tragic episode in which Heracles, struck with Hera-sent madness, turns his violence upon his own household. The composition belongs to the Hercules Furens tradition that follows Megara's story to its darkest variant, in which the hero slays both the children he had by her and Megara herself before regaining his senses and seeking purification through his labours. The panel, dated to the 3rd–4th century CE, is preserved in the National Archaeology Museum of Lisbon, Portugal.
Apulian volute krater: Megara and her sons in the Underworld
White Sakkos Painter, c. 320–310 BC
An Apulian red-figure volute krater by the White Sakkos Painter in the Antikensammlung Kiel (B 585) stages an underworld tableau: Hades and Persephone sit in their palace while, outside to the left, Megara stands with her two sons among Hecate, the Danaids, Hermes and Orpheus. The vase keeps Heracles' Theban wife present even after death — the mother of the murdered children as a shade in the South Italian vision of the afterlife.