When my father saved my mother from the faun, neither knew that he was actually dooming himself.
My mother's name means "man-destroyer." Her love was borderline obsessive, some might say. Perhaps my father should have seen the red flags, perhaps great clanging alarms should have sounded in his mind.
History will blame his death on her jealousy, but I grew up seeing both sides. He held power. Influence over politics, influence over individuals and thus society, influence on how his—our—story would be told. He embodied power. He could battle a lion one-on-one and with the help of his best friend, a hydra.
My father was the King Arthur to us: powerful and righteousness. Men and women alike fawned. He would have three wives—some say four—several consorts, and so many lovers and children that no one storyteller knew it exactly. One of many lovers and one of few wives was my mother. The difference between her and the rest, the difference that allowed her to climb that ladder from lover to wife, was her status: Princess of Calydon.
So, I think it's fair to say my father was too busy to see what he was driving my mother to, not that she is wholly innocent: she did knowingly kill him, even if driven to madness.
It was this madness that killed him, or got him killed, drove us from our home, and me to Hades.
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Notes:
Image: ALCIDE E DEJANIRA, CONCORSO BALESTRA 1801 https://www.accademiasanluca.eu/it/collezioni_online/scultura/archive/cat_id/1260/id/564/alcide-e-dejanira My understanding of the sculpture: Alcide means "glory of Hera," Herakles is known as various titles and nominees, most often relating back to his namesake the goddess Hera. Heracles/Hercules (Herakles in this story, Alcide in the sculpture) has killed the centaur (also called faun in some sources) Nessus and rescued Deianira. Herakles and Deianira embraced. It looks as though Nessus lays dead underneath (that could be some other animal, idk for sure, but given the being has four horse-like legs, I am guessing it is Nessus by reason of deduction).
The story of Deianira and examples of her in classical art:
https://www.amantascott.com/deianira
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/hercules-deianira-and-nessus
https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/300
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