When Deianira sent the shirt steeped in Nessus' blood, the poison consumed Heracles on Mount Oeta; Philoctetes lit the pyre, a cloud bore the hero up, and on Olympus he wed Hebe — though in Hades his shade still walked among the heroes.1
Oechalia and Iole
Eurytus of Oechalia had taught the young Heracles to shoot and promised his daughter Iole to whoever could surpass him with the bow. When the hero returned and won, the king refused; later Heracles sacked the city, slew Eurytus, and carried Iole away — the prize that would undo him.2
Nessus and the blood
Crossing the river Evenus with Deianira, Heracles entrusted her to the centaur Nessus to carry over. Nessus tried to ravish her; the hero shot him with an arrow dipped in the Hydra's gall. Dying, Nessus gave Deianira his blood, saying it would bind Heracles' love — a gift that would kill him.3
The shirt on Oeta
When Deianira learned that Heracles had taken Iole, she smeared the supposed love-charm on a robe and sent it to him. As the poison ate into his flesh he tore at his own body, built a pyre on Mount Oeta, and lay upon it; none would kindle the fire until Poeas, passing in search of his flocks, set it alight and received the hero's bow.4
Apotheosis
Deianira, learning what she had done, hanged herself. A cloud took Heracles from the pyre to Olympus, where he was made immortal and wed to Hebe. Hesiod sings that he dwells in joy with the fair-ankled goddess; Homer still shows his shade in Hades, yet both agree that the son of Alcmene passed from mortal agony into the company of the gods.5
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How the centuries saw it
Hercules on the Pyre
Guido Reni, 1617–1619
Louvre INV 538: Reni's Mantuan cycle ends with Heracles on the funeral pile — the poisoned shirt's agony staged as monumental nude stoicism before the flames that will make him a god.
The Apotheosis of Hercules
François Lemoyne, 1731–1736
Versailles Salon d'Hercule ceiling: after Oeta's pyre, Hercules is received on Olympus by Jupiter and Juno — the death that becomes godhead painted as Rococo triumph.
The Apotheosis of Hercules
Noël Coypel, 1700
Coypel's oil restages the cloud-borne ascent: the labourer of Trachis and Oeta lifted among the immortals — Hesiod's Hebe-wedding afterlife in French classical colour.
Nessus and Deianira
Enrique Simonet, 1888
Simonet's academic canvas: the centaur seizes Deianira at the Evenus — the dying deceit that furnishes the poisoned 'love-charm' and seals Heracles' pyre years later.
In music & on stage
In play
Trachiniae
Sophocles
Sophocles' Women of Trachis — Deianira's poisoned shirt and Heracles' pyre on Oeta as tragedy's death of the hero.
Heracles
The shirt of Nessus and the pyre that makes a god — Heracles' end remains as famous as his labours.
Deianira
The wife who meant to keep love and sent death — Deianira's name is bound forever to the hero's last agony.