ABSTRACT
The journey was not without its risks and adventures. Herakles and his wife had an unpleasant encounter with a Centaur first of all on reaching the river Euenos in eastern Aetolia. This Centaur, NESSOS, used to carry people across the river in return for a fee and offered to do the same on this occasion, alleging that the gods had appointed him to his post of ferryman on account of his excellent character. Although Herakles was quite capable of crossing on his own, he willingly paid Nessos to carry Deianeira; but the Centaur was really of no better character than most of his kind, and he attempted to rape Deianeira on reaching the opposite bank (or else in mid-stream). She alerted her husband by her loud screams, however, and he brought Nessos to the ground with one of his poisoned arrows. As the life ebbed from his body, Nessos told Deianeira that if she wanted to acquire a powerful lovepotion to use on her husband, she should collect some of the semen that he had shed on to the ground and mix it with some blood from his wound. She took him at his word and did so, little realizing that the mixture would be a virulent poison because the blood was tainted with the poison (i.e. hydra’s venom, see p. 284) from Herakles’ arrow.211 As we will see (p. 258), Deianeira later applied this unsavoury potion to some of her husband’s clothing with terrible effect, just as Nessos would have hoped.
