ABSTRACT
The last wife of the super-hero Hercules during his time on earth was the Greek heroine Deianira. To win her hand, he had to fight a rival suitor, the river-god Achelous, whom he defeated, breaking off the deity’s horns as he wrestled with him. When returning home with his bride, Hercules came to the river Evenus, which was severely swollen by heavy rains. A Centaur (half-man, half-horse) called Nessus offered to carry her over the river on his back while Hercules made his own way. The hero agreed and swam across, but then heard her cry and looked back to see Nessus trying to rape her. He promptly shot the Centaur with an arrow. To get revenge, as he was dying Nessus gave Deianira his tunic soaked in his blood, telling her that the blood had the power to revive waning love. Years later Hercules conquered the Greek town of Oechalia, killing its king (Eurytus) and taking his daughter Iole captive. But he fell in love with her and had her go on ahead of him back to his home. There Deianira became aware of his feelings for Iole, when she arrived, and so she sent him a tunic smeared with Nessus’ blood. At this point, confident that his love for her would be renewed in this way, she writes this letter, in which she reprimands him for his infidelity and mocks him for his undignified carryings-on. However, while she is still writing, news reaches her that Nessus’ blood is in fact an agonizing poison, which is burning and killing Hercules (who has put on the tunic), and she resolves to commit suicide at the end of the epistle. She did go on to kill herself. Hercules died too, having made a pyre on the top of Mount Oeta and mounted it as it burned. The fire purged his mortal elements, and he mounted to heaven and became a god. The story is told in full at Ovid Metamorphoses 9.1ff.
