DÊANIRA, _wife of Heracles._
_An_ Attendant.
HYLLUS, _son of Heracles and Dêanira_.
CHORUS _of Trachinian Maidens_.
_A_ Messenger.
LICHAS, _the Herald_.
_A_ Nurse.
_An_ Old Man.
HERACLES.
IOLE, _who does not speak_.
SCENE. Before the temporary abode of Heracles in Trachis.
This tragedy is named from the Chorus. From the subject it might have
been called 'Deanira or the Death of Heracles'.
The Centaur Nessus, in dying by the arrow of Heracles, which had been
dipped in the venom of the Hydra, persuaded the bride Deanira, whose
beauty was the cause of his death, to keep some of the blood from the
wound as a love-charm for her husband. Many years afterwards, when
Heracles was returning from his last exploit of sacking Oechalia, in
Euboea, he sent before him, by his herald Lichas, Iole, the king's
daughter, whom he had espoused. Deanira, when she had discovered this,
commissioned Lichas when he returned to present his master with a
robe, which she had anointed with the charm,--hoping by this means to
regain her lord's affection. But the poison of the Hydra did its work,
and Heracles died in agony, Deanira having already killed herself on
ascertaining what she had done. The action takes place in Trachis,
near the Mahae Gulf, where Heracles and Deanira, by permission of
Ceyx, the king of the country, have been living in exile. At the close
of the drama, Heracles, while yet alive, is carried towards his pyre
on Mount Oeta.