Deianira

The Story

In Greek mythology Deianira was a princess in the court of King Oeneus of Calydon, with whom Heracles fell in love. According to Sophocles, Deianira was courted by the river god Achelous, but was saved from having to marry him by Heracles, who defeated Achelous in a wrestling contest for her hand in marriage. In another version of the story she is described as the daughter of Dexamenus. Heracles rapes her and promises to come back and marry her. While he is away the centaur Eurytion appears and demands her as his wife. Her father complies but Heracles reappears before the marriage, slays the centaur and claims his bride. Deianira has subsequently been associated with combat and described as one who “drove a chariot and practices the art of war”. In some accounts she is known as Hippolyte.

In another version of the story, Deianira and Heracles are on their way to visit a friend.

A centaur named Nessus offers to carry Deianira over a river. The centaur, however, promptly runs off with her instead. Heracles shoots him down with one of his venom-tipped arrows.

As he lies dying, the centaur realizes his blood is poisoned. He asks Deianira to dip a cloth in his blood, telling her that, mixed with a little olive oil, it will have infallible properties as a love potion. He tells Deianira that if she ever suspects she might be losing her husband’s affections, she must sprinkle some of this potion over his clothing and he will never leave her. When the couple reached their destination Deianira surreptitiously wrings Nessus’s blood from the still-damp cloth into a small phial.

Years pass in which Deianira feels no need for Nessus’s lethal gift. Heracles is busy fighting battles, sacking cities, challenging champions and fathering illegitimate children all across Greece.

However it is when Heracles captures and again falls in love, this time with Princes Iole, that Deianira becomes concerned. Previously, Heracles had been sentenced to three years of servitude as punishment for killing Iphitus, the son of King Eurytus. Heracles had killed him because Eurytus had insulted Heracles when he sought unsuccessfully to wed the king’s daughter Iole. With Princess Iole again on the scene Deianira sees a very real rival for her husband’s affections, and this time in her own home.

Deianira takes the supposed love potion and rubs it into one of her husband’s garments: his famous lionskin shirt. The potion begins to act, burning into his skin, and Heracles collapses in agony.

Upon discovering that the centaur has deceived her, and that the supposed love potion is in fact poison: Deianira takes her own life. Her name has subsequently been translated as “man-destroyer” or “destroyer of her husband.”