This article centers on two images from the life of Hercules and a
border painting modeled after Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Das
Meerwunder (ca. 1498) in a Kyriale produced ca. 1500 for a Dominican
convent in Toledo, Spain. It discusses the cultural significance of
Hercules in Spain, and Toledo in particular, then presents a contextually
sensitive reading of the image derived from Dürer’s enigmatic engraving,
whose subject has yet to be identified. The image in the Kyriale appears
to represent Hercules’ once-famous rescue of the Trojan princess Hesione
from a sea monster.