nec res intercipe nostras

Ovid, Metamorphoses IX.122

Another cartoon from Ovid last semester. This time from the tale of Hercules and Nessus the centaur, which sows the seeds for Hercules' nasty end. 

The situation was this: Hercules is returning home with his bride Deianeira and they come to a river swollen by flooding, which Hercules doesn't know how to get his wife across. Nessus shows up and offers to carry Deianeira on his back while Hercules swims. With no misgivings whatsoever, Hercules hands his frightened wife over to the centaur. But when he reaches the other shore, he finds that Nessus is running away from the other shore with is wife. 

Ovid gives Hercules a shouted speech to Nessus. Most humorously in line 122 Hercules tells Nessus: "nec res intercipe nostras" -- literally "and don't steal our things!" But he's talking about a person, viz. his wife Deianeira. I think it shows the kind of brutish mentality of Hercules. 

To make a long story short, Hercules shoots an arrow through Nessus' back and kills him. Nessus gives his blood-soaked cloak to Deianeira saying it will make Hercules love her if he is ever unfaithful and, years later, she fears this to be the case, sends the cloak to Hercules, and when he puts it on it burns him alive--and that's how he died.