Up to this moment, the great hero Heracles had
helped the gods in their fight against the giants, he had fulfilled all
the tasks Eurystheus had given him, he had joined for a while the team
of the Argonauts, and he had took revenge of the king Laomedon and the
king Augias.
After this, he was involved in some more hero
tasks around the Peloponnesus until one day he went to the court of the
king Oineus. This king had a very beautiful daughter,
Deianeira, and the
hero immediately fall in love with her. After a big fight with the
enemies of the river god Achelaos, which of course he won, he went to
Theban with the princess. On the way, a river with too much water
stopped their trip. Next to the river lived the centaur
Nessos, to whom Dinaeira
helped. But, in the middle of the river he was not able to resist her
beauty and tried to get her, and then Heracles killed him with one of
his arrows. However, before dying he gave her a cloth dipped with his
blood and told her that if she rubbed Heracles underwear with this, he
would never be unfaithful, and she innocently trusted him.
After some
time, Heracles had an argument with Eurytos, the king of Euboa. He then
destroyed the city, killed all the king's sons and took
Jole, the
daughter of the king, as a prisoner. Deianeira was afraid to loose him,
so she followed the centaur's advice. When Heracles put on his
underwear, he started to scream and ripped away his clothes, but it was
already too late. He started having an amazingly big pain and his eldest
son Hyllos took him home. When Deinaeira saw what she had done, she
killed herself with a sword. Then they took Heracles to the mountain of
Oita, where the oracle had foreseen his death. There they built a pile
of wood from where the hero was taken by the Gods. Once in heaven, he
married Hebe, Hera's daughter, who gave him immortal children.
Perseus / Heracles / Theseus / The Argonauts / Odyssey / Phaethon / Orpheus
