Diomedes Devoured by His Horses

Diomedes Devoured by His Horses (1865) at the Detroit Institute of Arts depicts one of the labors of Heracles — the capture and defeat of the man-eating mares of Diomedes, king of Thrace, who fed his horses on human flesh. Moreau chose to depict not Heracles defeating Diomedes but Diomedes himself being devoured by his own horses — a moment of poetic justice that showed the instrument of cruelty turned against its perpetrator. The subject combined animal violence, human suffering, and mythological justice in a way that suited Moreau's interest in subjects where human transgression meets its divine punishment. Exhibited at the Salon of 1866, it demonstrated the dramatic range of his mythological subjects, from the visionary and erotic to the overtly violent.

The horses' powerful forms dominate the composition — their violence conveyed through their rearing postures, open mouths, and the turbulent energy of their grouped bodies against the sky. The human figure beneath is consumed by the force he had sought to control.