The Odyssey had associated
Hercules
with Iphitus, eldest son of
King Eurytus.
King Eurytus.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
others gave a different version. They indicated that Athena had no part
in the adventure, and they gave more prominence to Iolaiis. It was he
who brought the torch and seared the sprouting necks. This idea in-
spired a metope of the Theseum at Athens. Euripides in his Ion de-
scribed the incident as carved on the temple at Delphi. After the fifth
century B. C. , it became the accepted version. The Manual, repeating
the story in this form, altered some details. Hercules, it said, attacked
the hydra with a club, smashing the heads; and Iolaiis burned a neigh-
boring grove of trees, in order to obtain hot brands. Several Alexan-
drian and Roman authors alluded to incidents of the famous adventure.
Regarding the form of the hydra, there was much difference of
opinion. Euripides in the Hercules Furens described the monster as a
myriad headed hound. Diodorus mentioned a hundred heads. Vergil in
one passage of the Aeneid spoke of a hundred and in another passage
spoke of fifty. The Manual stated that the hydra had nine heads, one
of which was immortal. After Hercules had destroyed the other eight,
he cut off the immortal head and buried it under a rock. With the ex-
ception of Euripides, all authors seem to have agreed in regarding the
hydra as a many headed snake. Greek artists of earlier times appear
to have been of the same opinion. They pictured a number of serpent
heads and necks darting from the upper edge of a flat, triangular body,
presumably the modified form of a snake. But Alexandrian and Roman
artists preferred to represent the hydra as partly human -- with ser-
pent heads and the body of a woman, or vice versa. Following the liter-
ary and the older artistic conception, Ovid spoke of the hydra as a
supernatural snake; following Vergil, he mentioned a hundred heads;
and, following the Manual, he referred to the monster's being overcome
and shut in a safe place.
After recalling to Achelous the chief circumstances of the tale,
Ovid continued, Hercules asked him what use it would be to counterfeit
the form of a snake. Then remembering the hero's early victory over
serpents, Ovid noted that Hercules caught Achelous by the throat and
began to strangle him. Defeated as a serpent, Achelous resorted to his
third shape.
He became a fierce bull. The change brought him only temporary
release. Hercules wrapped his arms round the neck of the bull, clung to
him as he ran, and threw him flat on the ground. Following the Manual,
Ovid spoke of Hercules as breaking off one of the bull's horns, and he
associated the incident with the Horn of Plenty. But he altered the
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
story. It was the horn of Achelous, he said, which acquired the magic
property. Nymphs inhabiting the river bank obtained the broken horn,
apparently as a gift from Hercules. They filled it with fruit and flowers
and by their own supernatural power transformed it into the Horn of
Plenty. Assuming that his readers would recall the marriage of Hercules
and Deianira, Ovid left the event unmentioned.
He proceeded immediately to the closing incidents of the entertain-
ment given by Achelous to Theseus. While describing the earlier part of
this entertainment (Bk. 8), Ovid had followed Vergil's account of Cyrene
and Aristaeus. Like Vergil, he spoke of a meal which included a main
course and then some wine, and he indicated after that a long period of
conversation. Probably he thought of the meal as finished. The reader
would get this impression, even if he did not remember the example of
Vergil. For, if there were going to be a second course, it would follow
the wine either immediately or after only a brief interval. But, as Ovid
told about the Horn of Plenty, he decided to bring the magic instrument
before Theseus and his friends. He remembered that in the tale of
Philemon and Baucis there had been a second course, which included bas-
kets of fragrant apples, and he seized on the idea as a reason for intro-
ducing the horn. A nymph, he said, who was girt like those attending
Diana, brought all autumn in the bounteous horn and offered wholesome
apples as a second course.
So far, there appeared to be merely an improbable delay. Ovid pro-
ceeded to make it incredible. The entertainment had been chiefly an occa-
sion for introducing otherwise unrelated stories. Ovid now was anxious
to dismiss the subject of Theseus, and he did this with reckless haste.
The meal had begun towards mid-afternoon; and, when the wine was fin-
ished, there still was enough daylight for Theseus to observe the distant
Echinades Isles. There followed a period of conversation, which the
reader would suppose to be of considerable length. But he was not pre-
pared to have Ovid announce, after the second course, that already it
was dawn. The second course had been delayed the entire night. The-
seus had been waiting for a flood to subside and had been spending the
time very pleasantly. Without obvious cause he suddenly became impa-
tient. He decided not to wait longer, Ovid continued, but to depart at
once. And repeating a beautiful phrase from the story of Cephalus
(Bk. 7), Ovid noted that it was as soon as the first rays touched the
mountains.
Despite obvious inconsistency of detail, Ovid brought out well what-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ever was picturesque in the myth of Acheloiis and Hercules, and he left
the only full account which survived ancient times. Many later authors
showed interest in the story.
Seneca in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta, alluded to it at some length.
Statius, telling in his Thebaid of the wrestling match between Tydeus
and Agylleus, imitated Ovid's account of the preparations, and his simile
of bulls contending for a white heifer, although for the purpose of Sta-
tius, a comparison of this kind was inappropriate. Hawthorne remem-
bered in his tale, The Three Golden Apples, that Hercules conquered
snakes while still in his cradle. Hyginus repeated Ovid's story about the
origin of the Horn of Plenty. Chaucer, including a narrative of Her-
cules in the Monk's tale, referred to the earlier incidents of it, noting
that,
Of Acheloiis two homes, he brak oon.
Shakespeare in the Second Part of Henry Fourth showed Falstaff
alluding vaguely to the conclusion. The tailor, he said, may sleep in
security, for he hath the horn of abundance. Shakespeare was inter-
ested also in Ovid's references to earlier adventures of Hercules. In
Love's Labour's Lost he made a long jesting allusion to the victory over
the snakes. And Ovid's account of the hydra encouraged his frequent
allusions to the monster, especially a remark of Douglas in the Second
Part of Henry Fourth that new kings grew like hydra's heads.
Milton several times recalled Ovid because of his turns of phrase.
Remembering that Acheloiis bound up his unadorned locks, he noted in
Paradise Lost that, Eve
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled. *
And later in the same poem he observed that Adam offered Raphael a
banquet at which there was all autumn piled. In Paradise Regained
Milton observed that, attending the banquet offered by Satan, there were
Nymphs of Diana's train and Naiades
With fruits and flowers of Amalthea's horn.
Modern artists often turned to Ovid's narrative. Fontana painted
the combat of Acheloiis and Hercules. Reynolds pictured the infant Her-
cules and the snakes. The painter Pollaiuollo and the sculptor Puget
treated the battle with the hydra. And Jordaens showed the transforma-
tion of the river god's broken horn.
*The same unusual phrase appears to have been echoed in a line of Comus. Milton
pointed out that certain isles inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Nessus and the Death of Hercules
Although love for Deianira was costly to Acheloiis, Ovid continued,
it was even more costly to Nessus, for it occasioned his death. The
Manual had recorded this event as occurring when Deianira had been
married three years and had become the mother of a son named Hyllus.
But Ovid stated that it happened only a short time after the wedding.
He referred to Deianira as virgin, in the sense that she had not yet born
a child, an unusual expression which afterwards was employed by Seneca
to describe Iole and by Milton to describe Ceres. Ovid then told the story
of Hercules and Nessus.
The subject had interested many Greek authors and artists. Archi-
lochus treated it in a work which now is lost. Hellanicus gave the pre-
liminary circumstances. For some time, he said, Hercules and Deianira
lived happily at the court of the bride's father, King Oeneus of Aetolia.
Then Hercules unintentionally killed a young relative of Oeneus and
went into voluntary exile. While departing from Aetolia, he encountered
Nessus. Bacchylides gave a few details. The event occurred on the
banks of a river called Lycormas. This river flows from Mt. Oeta
southwards to the Corinthian Gulf, and forms the boundary of Aetolia
on the east. By later authors it usually was called Evenus. Bacchylides
added that Nessus offered Deianira a gift, the nature of which she little
suspected.
Sophocles told the story briefly in his Trachinian Women. Nessus,
he observed, was a centaur, and, like many of his kind, was black haired.
He used to carry travelers across the river Evenus, bearing them on his
human shoulders well above the water. Hercules arranged to have Nessus
transport his wife. Then he himself crossed the river unaided. The cen-
taur, following with Deianira, began to handle her wantonly, but her
loud screams caused him to desist and then continue to the other side.
There Hercules shot him through the lung with an arrow dipped in poison
of the hydra. Realizing the fatal nature of the wound, Nessus craftily
told Deianira that he wanted to do her a service. He bade her gather in
her hands the mingled blood and venom which was clotting round the
wound; preserve it in a cool, dark place; and, if at any time she needed
to revive her husband's love, smear it on some robe which he intended
to wear. Deianira, believing that Nessus offered her a potent love charm,
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
followed his instructions. The Manual repeating the story, added that
Nessus had been one of the centaurs whom Hercules vanquished in Thes-
saly and that he had fled southwards to the Evenus. It spoke of Hercules
and Deianira as on their way to a new home in Trachin. Among other
improbable circumstances, the story as told by Sophocles and the Manual
indicated that Nessus ventured to meet the offended Hercules and that
Deianira was able to collect the blood unnoticed by her husband. To this
account of the centaur's death Ovid alluded in his Epistle of Deianira,
and in his Ibis.
Nicander avoided some difficulties of the older version. Instead of
entering the water, he said, Nessus waited until Hercules had crossed,
then seized Deianira and tried to abduct her. While he ran, Hercules
shot him through the back. This idea afterwards was repeated by
Quintus Smyrnaeus. There still remained the improbable circumstances
that Deianira collected the blood and venom without injury to herself
and that she was able to preserve it in a form capable of being smeared
on a robe.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid gave a still different version, which
avoided these difficulties also. In the earlier incidents of the tale he
elaborated the account of Nicander. Noting that Hercules and Deianira
were on their way to the hero's native city, he mentioned their coming to
the river. That day the Evenus had been swollen by rains and no longer
was fordable. Nessus offered to carry Deianira, leaving Hercules free
to cross by swimming. Greek authors appear to have imagined the
stream as broad, and Seneca afterwards declared that it was. Ovid
thought of it as narrow and deep, like many rivers of France. Hercules
was able to toss his club and his bow over to the other side. Then, wear-
ing his traditional equipment of a lion skin and a quiver of poison
arrows, he easily swam across. It is surprising that he would risk in-
juring his arrows in the water. As he picked up the bow, he was startled
by the screams of his bride and discovered that Nessus was making off
with her.
Ovid showed Hercules at first warning the centaur to stop. He cau-
tioned him that he could not hope to escape with impunity, reminding
him of the punishment of Ixion. Here Ovid alluded to the familiar tradi-
tion that Ixion had attempted to ravish Juno and had been punished in
Tartarus by fastening on a whirling wheel (cf. Athamas, Bk. 4). Pindar
had spoken of Ixion as grandfather of many of the centaurs. Later
authors usually spoke of him as their father, and Ovid showed Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
alluding to this idea. Since the warning was addressed over a torrential
river to a centaur in rapid flight, Ovid made it improbably long and
rhetorical. Finding that words had no effect, Hercules shot an arrow.
It pierced Nessus between his equine shoulders and protruded from his
chest on the other side. As Nessus pulled it out, blood spurted both in
front and behind.
Ovid then departed radically from Nicander. He imagined that
Nessus wore a tunic over the human part of his body. Muttering, "I
shall not die unavenged," the centaur caught enough warm blood in his
hands to soak the tunic and then offered this garment as a love charm.
Presumably Deianira had failed to hear the threat. Ovid did not suggest
how she could take the tunic with her, unobserved by Hercules.
Passing over a number of years, Ovid declared that the great
achievements of Hercules filled the earth. The Iliad had spoken of Juno
as always hostile, observing that Hercules succumbed at length to fate
and the wrath of Juno. Euripides in his Hercules Furens had shown her
persecuting the hero after the completion of his famous labors. But
the Manual indicated that, when she had compelled him to perform
twelve of them, she was content. Ovid made a compromise between the
two ideas. With the Manual he supposed that Juno was appeased. With
the poets he agreed that Hercules believed her hostile to the last. He
showed the hero declaring later in the tale that Juno was weary of im-
posing tasks but still was afflicting him.
After noting a lapse of years, Ovid mentioned the destruction of a
city named Oechalia. Regarding its location Greek authors held various
opinions. The Iliad mentioned it first as lying southwest in Messenia,
near the home of Nestor, but later referred to it as lying northwards in
Thessaly. Both passages named Eurytus as the king. The Odyssey re-
peated the first idea, that it was in Messenia. Bacchylides implied that
it was neither there nor in Thessaly but on the island of Euboea.
Sophocles localized it in the middle of the island, and this afterwards
became the usual opinion.
The Odyssey had associated Hercules with Iphitus, eldest son of
King Eurytus. That prince went in search of a number of mares, which
had become lost, and eventually found them at Tiryns in the possession
of Hercules. Under a pretense of hospitality, the Odyssey continued,
Hercules received Iphitus into his house and then treacherously mur-
dered him. Greek authors afterwards tried in various ways to lessen the
heinous nature of the crime. Pherecydes declared that Hercules did not
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
kill the prince in his house but lured him out on the city walls and threw
him to the ground below. Sophocles observed that he did not lure him out
on the walls but met him there by chance. The Manual explained that
Hercules acted without ill intent while temporarily insane.
The Odyssey implied that Hercules had stolen the mares, and Dio-
dorus stated it as a fact. The Manual spoke of them as having been
stolen by the thief Autolycus. In any case the motive for killing Iphitus
was not primarily desire for the animals but resentment against King
Eurytus. This idea was not mentioned in the Odyssey but appeared more
and more clearly in the work of later authors. According to the Odyssey,
Eurytus died before his son went on the quest. But Sophocles and most
authors following him spoke of Eurytus as alive until some time after the
murder.
As a primitive community regarded homicide, the injured parties
were limited ordinarily to members of the victim's immediate family.
They were expected to exact a penalty from the person responsible for
the loss of their kinsman. But the penalty was not necessarily death.
If the killer was wealthy and powerful, he might atone by a payment of
money; or, if he enjoyed the favor of a powerful patron, the latter
might make this atonement for him. Such atonement was described as
occurring more than once in the Icelandic Nialsaga and as occurring
also in the Greek myth of Hercules. The hero arranged to have Apollo
conciliate the family of Iphitus. The god was to sell Hercules into
slavery and pay the money to the bereaved family. This incident was
mentioned by Aeschylus in his Agamemnon and was told in full by
Pherecydes. In earlier accounts, payment was made to the sons of
Iphitus; in later accounts, which assumed that Eurytus still was alive,
payment was made to him. Hercules became a slave of the Lydian queen
Omphale, but only for a limited period -- according to Sophocles, for
a year.
The early epic called Taking of Oechalia first mentioned Hercules
as waging war against the city. Bacchylides noted that he left it a prey
to fire. Sophocles recorded a number of the circumstances. Hercules
fell in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus, and courted her despite the
fact that he was married to Deianira. Her father rejected him, not
because he was married but for some other reason. Angered at the re-
fusal, Hercules killed Iphitus and atoned for the crime by slavery in
Lydia. After his release he assembled an army in Trachin, attacked
and destroyed Oechalia, and took Iole captive. Sophocles implied that
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Eurytus perished with the fall of the town, an idea which later authors
often recorded explicitly. In the Hippolytus, Euripides declared that
amid fire and smoke and cries of terror Iole was rowed away to Hercules.
The Manual related the courtship of Iole more closely to other
events in the career of Hercules. It supposed the courtship to have be-
gun long before the time of his marriage to Deianira. After finishing
the twelve labors, Hercules learned that Eurytus had offered his daugh-
ter as prize to anyone who should vanquish him in archery. Being then
without a wife, he entered the contest and won. But Eurytus, alleging
that he might again go mad and kill his children, refused to give him the
prize and drove him out of the city. After the murder of Iphitus and
the atonement, Hercules married Deianira and undertook various enter-
prizes which occupied him for many years. Still unwilling to give up
Iole, he at last made his expedition against Oechalia. In the Epistle of
Deianira, Ovid already had told about Hercules as a slave of Omphale.
Having no interest in the war, he passed immediately to the ensuing
events.
After the capture of Oechalia, said Bacchylides, Hercules went to
the Cenaean Promontory and began preparing for a sacrifice in honor
of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pallas. This promontory formed the north-
western end of Euboea. Probably Bacchylides imagined the ceremony
as about to be performed high on the western side of the mountains, near
a town called Dium. Meanwhile Hercules planned that Iole should be
conveyed to his home, which was then at Trachin, on the mainland a
little north of Euboea. Deianira, receiving news of his intention, be-
came jealous and resorted to the love charm -- a fatal mistake.
Sophocles gave a clearer and more detailed account. Before Her-
cules undertook the war against Oechalia, he had promised that, if the
outcome should be favorable, he would offer a sacrifice on the Cenaean
Promontory. Sophocles imagined the offering as planned in honor of
Jupiter alone, an idea followed by most authors afterwards. Hyllus,
who now was old enough to go in search of his father, met Hercules near
the Promontory and decided to wait for the ceremony before returning
home. Meanwhile Hercules despatched a party in charge of the herald
Lichas for conveying Iole and other captives to Trachin.
Lichas, purposely arriving a little in advance of the others, endeav-
ored to forestall resentment on the part of Deianira. He informed her
that Hercules had made war in order to avenge humiliations occasioned
by Eurytus. When Iole arrived, Lichas pretended ignorance of her
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
identity. Deianira received her kindly and pitied her forlorn state.
Later someone acquainted with the facts told Deianira the real situation.
She questioned Lichas and got him to confess the deception, for which
he assumed entire responsibility. Sophocles imagined Deianira's atti-
tude as primitive and yet dignified and even noble. This was not the
first time, she said, that Hercules had loved some other woman. Regard-
ing the passion of love as irresistible, she always looked on such affairs
as his misfortune and not his fault. She did not blame Iole, and she
sympathized with her misfortunes. But in one respect this affair was
more grave than the others. Instead of letting it remain an incident of
some distant quest, Hercules was bringing Iole back to his permanent
residence. Deianira was willing to share the home with Iole, but she
feared that Hercules might think his new favorite so attractive that he
would lose all interest in Deianira. To prevent this extremity, she re-
sorted to the love charm.
Secretly smearing a tunic with the blood of Nessus, she put it in a
wooden box and delivered it to Lichas as a gift for Hercules to wear at
the ceremony. Apparently Sophocles thought the color of the tunic
would have prevented anyone from observing stains of blood. But it was
unlikely that after many years the blood of Nessus could be used in this
manner. Deianira gave instructions that until the hour of the ceremony
the tunic was to be kept in a cool, dark place. Lichas probably would
have supposed this to mean that he needed to protect the dye, which in
ancient times was apt to fade, if exposed to the sun (cf. Arachne,
Bk. 6). He departed without suspicion.
Deianira had applied the philter by soaking it up with a handful
of wool and then had thrown the wool on the ground. It fell in a sunny
place. She now observed with horror that the blood boiled, consumed
the wool to dust, and then foamed on the ground. Remembering how it
was mingled with venom of the hydra, she suspected that Nessus must
have plotted against her husband's life, and she resolved in that case to
die. This account Ovid appears to have recalled in his Tristia, for he
mentioned Iole and Deianira as examples of a love story that became
the theme of tragedy.
The Manual, retelling the story briefly, differed at several points.
Hercules, it said, kept Iole with him and sent Lichas to fetch clothing
appropriate for the ceremony. Apparently without hesitation, Lichas
told Deianira about Iole, and she smeared the tunic with blood of Nessus.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
The Manual said nothing about her observing any ominous effect on the
wool.
Ovid treated the subject first in his Epistle of Deianira to Hercules.
Although he took a number of particulars from Sophocles, he made
several important innovations. A rumor, spreading widely through the
Greek cities, informed Deianira that Hercules was in love with Iole.
Then the princess arrived, proud and in rich array. Ovid imagined
Deianira as acting the part of the ordinary jealous wife. She immedi-
ately sent the tunic and then began writing a letter to scold Hercules
at some length, not only for the present disloyalty but also for all the
others. Learning in some degree the fatal nature of her gift, she resolved
to be a sister worthy of the brave Meleager and to take her own life.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid repeated his idea that Deianira heard
the news by rumor, but he made it more striking. Vergil in the Aeneid
had spoken of a personified Rumor (or Fame) as informing Iarbas
about the relations of Dido and Aeneas. Ovid declared that the same
character informed Deianira about the relations of Hercules and Iole.
The Iliad had spoken of Discord (Eris) as small at first but increasing
rapidly until she walks on the ground and conceals her head in the
clouds. Vergil associated this idea with Rumor and added that she re-
ports indiscriminately both false and true. He may have intended the
reader to suppose that her account of Aeneas was partly false. Ovid
repeated these details of Vergil's description, with more emphasis on the
idea of falsehood, but the message seemed to be wholly true.
Ovid recounted Deianira's behavior immediately after hearing the
news. Inventing his details, he again portrayed her as less dignified than
the heroine of Sophocles. In accord with the Manual, he assumed that
Iole had not arrived in Trachin. At first Deianira wept bitterly. Then,
like Medea (Bk. 7), she considered her problem in a soliloquy. Recall-
ing Sophocles, Ovid imagined her reflecting that Iole would come and
usurp her place. She mentioned various courses that lay open to her.
As one of these, she might remember that she was Meleager's sister and
do a dreadful deed, such as killing her rival. The allusion to Meleager
murdering his uncles was impressive, but Ovid forgot that in the pre-
vious tale he had spoken of the Calydonian Boar Hunt as occurring at
a later time, after the death of Hercules. Deianira resolved at last to
send the tunic. Ovid implied that it was the same tunic which formerly
had been worn by Nessus. That it still would retain the blood was
probable, as will be evident to those who have gazed at the light blue
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
sweater of Charles First of England and have observed after nearly
three hundred years the reddish stains of his execution. In this matter,
Ovid improved on his predecessors. But it was unlikely that a tunic
worn by Nessus and now soiled and blood-stained would be acceptable
to Hercules.
Although Ovid had said that Rumor brought the news, he agreed
with the Manual that Lichas was come for clothing and that Deianira
gave him the tunic. And, like Sophocles, he noted that she sent it with
a gracious message to her lord. Ovid pointed out that neither Deianira
nor Lichas realized the nature of the gift. To Lichas, he said, ignorant
of what he was to deliver, she all unwitting delivers with her own hands
the cause of her future woe. And he added that Hercules was unaware
of what he was receiving. Although Ovid's phrasing was artificial, he
did well to show that all three acted in fatal ignorance.
Putting on the tunic, Hercules began the ceremony. Ovid may
have supposed that Hyllus was present, but he did not indicate it at
any point in the story. Already a flame was kindled on the altar. Her-
cules proceeded to offer wine and incense. As a matter of historical
fact, incense was unknown to the early Greeks. But Vergil had spoken
of Queen Amata and Lavinia as offering it on the morning of the cavalry
battle. Ovid followed Vergil's example, both here and elsewhere in his
poem. Afterwards Seneca followed Ovid in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta,
and Racine and Goethe revived the Roman practice in their own dramas
about ancient times.
Tradition had assumed that, as Hercules approached the altar
his tunic was exposed suddenly to light and heat both from the sun and
from the flames of the altar. The flames usually were thought to have
exerted the more potent effect. Soon the hydra venom became active,
with dire results. Hercules, believing that Lichas had plotted his death,
killed him. Aeschylus alluded to this incident in his Glaucus Pontius and
referred to the herald's grave as in Euboea.
Sophocles told the story in detail. After putting on the tunic,
Hercules at first proceeded with the sacrifice, proud and happy. All at
once a heavy sweat appeared on his face and limbs, and the tunic stuck
fast to his skin. The venom, working inwards, gave him racking pains.
He questioned Lichas, who disclaimed any ill intent. Then maddened
with the pain, Hercules seized Lichas by the ankle and hurled him from
the mountainside into the sea. As Lichas fell, his head struck a rock,
which lay among the waves. The blow dashed out his brains. Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
in agony sometimes fell to the ground, at other times leaped high in
air, while the capes on both sides of the water echoed with his cries. He
cursed his wife, who had sent the fatal gift. As the heat of the poison
obscured him in a cloud of smoke, he bade Hyllus take him from the un-
hallowed place. Led aboard a ship, he lapsed into an exhausted sleep.
Hyllus proceeded with him to Trachin, and told the appalling news to
Deianira. She killed herself with a sword.
On Mt. Oeta, a little south of Trachin, there was an ancient shrine
where either human victims or puppets were burned as offerings. Tradi-
tion ascribed the origin of the practice to Hercules. This idea was re-
corded in an early poem called The Marriage of Ceyx. Sophocles showed
the hero ordering his son to convey him up the mountain and then con-
struct a pyre and burn his still living body. He permitted Hyllus to
leave for someone else the duty of lighting the pyre. In the Trachinian
Women, Sophocles did not tell who undertook this duty, but in the
Philoctetes he spoke of that hero as performing the task and obtaining
as his reward the bow of Hercules, which later proved essential for the
capture of Troy. Ovid alluded twice in his Ibis to the account of Soph-
ocles.
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
others gave a different version. They indicated that Athena had no part
in the adventure, and they gave more prominence to Iolaiis. It was he
who brought the torch and seared the sprouting necks. This idea in-
spired a metope of the Theseum at Athens. Euripides in his Ion de-
scribed the incident as carved on the temple at Delphi. After the fifth
century B. C. , it became the accepted version. The Manual, repeating
the story in this form, altered some details. Hercules, it said, attacked
the hydra with a club, smashing the heads; and Iolaiis burned a neigh-
boring grove of trees, in order to obtain hot brands. Several Alexan-
drian and Roman authors alluded to incidents of the famous adventure.
Regarding the form of the hydra, there was much difference of
opinion. Euripides in the Hercules Furens described the monster as a
myriad headed hound. Diodorus mentioned a hundred heads. Vergil in
one passage of the Aeneid spoke of a hundred and in another passage
spoke of fifty. The Manual stated that the hydra had nine heads, one
of which was immortal. After Hercules had destroyed the other eight,
he cut off the immortal head and buried it under a rock. With the ex-
ception of Euripides, all authors seem to have agreed in regarding the
hydra as a many headed snake. Greek artists of earlier times appear
to have been of the same opinion. They pictured a number of serpent
heads and necks darting from the upper edge of a flat, triangular body,
presumably the modified form of a snake. But Alexandrian and Roman
artists preferred to represent the hydra as partly human -- with ser-
pent heads and the body of a woman, or vice versa. Following the liter-
ary and the older artistic conception, Ovid spoke of the hydra as a
supernatural snake; following Vergil, he mentioned a hundred heads;
and, following the Manual, he referred to the monster's being overcome
and shut in a safe place.
After recalling to Achelous the chief circumstances of the tale,
Ovid continued, Hercules asked him what use it would be to counterfeit
the form of a snake. Then remembering the hero's early victory over
serpents, Ovid noted that Hercules caught Achelous by the throat and
began to strangle him. Defeated as a serpent, Achelous resorted to his
third shape.
He became a fierce bull. The change brought him only temporary
release. Hercules wrapped his arms round the neck of the bull, clung to
him as he ran, and threw him flat on the ground. Following the Manual,
Ovid spoke of Hercules as breaking off one of the bull's horns, and he
associated the incident with the Horn of Plenty. But he altered the
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
story. It was the horn of Achelous, he said, which acquired the magic
property. Nymphs inhabiting the river bank obtained the broken horn,
apparently as a gift from Hercules. They filled it with fruit and flowers
and by their own supernatural power transformed it into the Horn of
Plenty. Assuming that his readers would recall the marriage of Hercules
and Deianira, Ovid left the event unmentioned.
He proceeded immediately to the closing incidents of the entertain-
ment given by Achelous to Theseus. While describing the earlier part of
this entertainment (Bk. 8), Ovid had followed Vergil's account of Cyrene
and Aristaeus. Like Vergil, he spoke of a meal which included a main
course and then some wine, and he indicated after that a long period of
conversation. Probably he thought of the meal as finished. The reader
would get this impression, even if he did not remember the example of
Vergil. For, if there were going to be a second course, it would follow
the wine either immediately or after only a brief interval. But, as Ovid
told about the Horn of Plenty, he decided to bring the magic instrument
before Theseus and his friends. He remembered that in the tale of
Philemon and Baucis there had been a second course, which included bas-
kets of fragrant apples, and he seized on the idea as a reason for intro-
ducing the horn. A nymph, he said, who was girt like those attending
Diana, brought all autumn in the bounteous horn and offered wholesome
apples as a second course.
So far, there appeared to be merely an improbable delay. Ovid pro-
ceeded to make it incredible. The entertainment had been chiefly an occa-
sion for introducing otherwise unrelated stories. Ovid now was anxious
to dismiss the subject of Theseus, and he did this with reckless haste.
The meal had begun towards mid-afternoon; and, when the wine was fin-
ished, there still was enough daylight for Theseus to observe the distant
Echinades Isles. There followed a period of conversation, which the
reader would suppose to be of considerable length. But he was not pre-
pared to have Ovid announce, after the second course, that already it
was dawn. The second course had been delayed the entire night. The-
seus had been waiting for a flood to subside and had been spending the
time very pleasantly. Without obvious cause he suddenly became impa-
tient. He decided not to wait longer, Ovid continued, but to depart at
once. And repeating a beautiful phrase from the story of Cephalus
(Bk. 7), Ovid noted that it was as soon as the first rays touched the
mountains.
Despite obvious inconsistency of detail, Ovid brought out well what-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ever was picturesque in the myth of Acheloiis and Hercules, and he left
the only full account which survived ancient times. Many later authors
showed interest in the story.
Seneca in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta, alluded to it at some length.
Statius, telling in his Thebaid of the wrestling match between Tydeus
and Agylleus, imitated Ovid's account of the preparations, and his simile
of bulls contending for a white heifer, although for the purpose of Sta-
tius, a comparison of this kind was inappropriate. Hawthorne remem-
bered in his tale, The Three Golden Apples, that Hercules conquered
snakes while still in his cradle. Hyginus repeated Ovid's story about the
origin of the Horn of Plenty. Chaucer, including a narrative of Her-
cules in the Monk's tale, referred to the earlier incidents of it, noting
that,
Of Acheloiis two homes, he brak oon.
Shakespeare in the Second Part of Henry Fourth showed Falstaff
alluding vaguely to the conclusion. The tailor, he said, may sleep in
security, for he hath the horn of abundance. Shakespeare was inter-
ested also in Ovid's references to earlier adventures of Hercules. In
Love's Labour's Lost he made a long jesting allusion to the victory over
the snakes. And Ovid's account of the hydra encouraged his frequent
allusions to the monster, especially a remark of Douglas in the Second
Part of Henry Fourth that new kings grew like hydra's heads.
Milton several times recalled Ovid because of his turns of phrase.
Remembering that Acheloiis bound up his unadorned locks, he noted in
Paradise Lost that, Eve
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled. *
And later in the same poem he observed that Adam offered Raphael a
banquet at which there was all autumn piled. In Paradise Regained
Milton observed that, attending the banquet offered by Satan, there were
Nymphs of Diana's train and Naiades
With fruits and flowers of Amalthea's horn.
Modern artists often turned to Ovid's narrative. Fontana painted
the combat of Acheloiis and Hercules. Reynolds pictured the infant Her-
cules and the snakes. The painter Pollaiuollo and the sculptor Puget
treated the battle with the hydra. And Jordaens showed the transforma-
tion of the river god's broken horn.
*The same unusual phrase appears to have been echoed in a line of Comus. Milton
pointed out that certain isles inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Nessus and the Death of Hercules
Although love for Deianira was costly to Acheloiis, Ovid continued,
it was even more costly to Nessus, for it occasioned his death. The
Manual had recorded this event as occurring when Deianira had been
married three years and had become the mother of a son named Hyllus.
But Ovid stated that it happened only a short time after the wedding.
He referred to Deianira as virgin, in the sense that she had not yet born
a child, an unusual expression which afterwards was employed by Seneca
to describe Iole and by Milton to describe Ceres. Ovid then told the story
of Hercules and Nessus.
The subject had interested many Greek authors and artists. Archi-
lochus treated it in a work which now is lost. Hellanicus gave the pre-
liminary circumstances. For some time, he said, Hercules and Deianira
lived happily at the court of the bride's father, King Oeneus of Aetolia.
Then Hercules unintentionally killed a young relative of Oeneus and
went into voluntary exile. While departing from Aetolia, he encountered
Nessus. Bacchylides gave a few details. The event occurred on the
banks of a river called Lycormas. This river flows from Mt. Oeta
southwards to the Corinthian Gulf, and forms the boundary of Aetolia
on the east. By later authors it usually was called Evenus. Bacchylides
added that Nessus offered Deianira a gift, the nature of which she little
suspected.
Sophocles told the story briefly in his Trachinian Women. Nessus,
he observed, was a centaur, and, like many of his kind, was black haired.
He used to carry travelers across the river Evenus, bearing them on his
human shoulders well above the water. Hercules arranged to have Nessus
transport his wife. Then he himself crossed the river unaided. The cen-
taur, following with Deianira, began to handle her wantonly, but her
loud screams caused him to desist and then continue to the other side.
There Hercules shot him through the lung with an arrow dipped in poison
of the hydra. Realizing the fatal nature of the wound, Nessus craftily
told Deianira that he wanted to do her a service. He bade her gather in
her hands the mingled blood and venom which was clotting round the
wound; preserve it in a cool, dark place; and, if at any time she needed
to revive her husband's love, smear it on some robe which he intended
to wear. Deianira, believing that Nessus offered her a potent love charm,
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
followed his instructions. The Manual repeating the story, added that
Nessus had been one of the centaurs whom Hercules vanquished in Thes-
saly and that he had fled southwards to the Evenus. It spoke of Hercules
and Deianira as on their way to a new home in Trachin. Among other
improbable circumstances, the story as told by Sophocles and the Manual
indicated that Nessus ventured to meet the offended Hercules and that
Deianira was able to collect the blood unnoticed by her husband. To this
account of the centaur's death Ovid alluded in his Epistle of Deianira,
and in his Ibis.
Nicander avoided some difficulties of the older version. Instead of
entering the water, he said, Nessus waited until Hercules had crossed,
then seized Deianira and tried to abduct her. While he ran, Hercules
shot him through the back. This idea afterwards was repeated by
Quintus Smyrnaeus. There still remained the improbable circumstances
that Deianira collected the blood and venom without injury to herself
and that she was able to preserve it in a form capable of being smeared
on a robe.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid gave a still different version, which
avoided these difficulties also. In the earlier incidents of the tale he
elaborated the account of Nicander. Noting that Hercules and Deianira
were on their way to the hero's native city, he mentioned their coming to
the river. That day the Evenus had been swollen by rains and no longer
was fordable. Nessus offered to carry Deianira, leaving Hercules free
to cross by swimming. Greek authors appear to have imagined the
stream as broad, and Seneca afterwards declared that it was. Ovid
thought of it as narrow and deep, like many rivers of France. Hercules
was able to toss his club and his bow over to the other side. Then, wear-
ing his traditional equipment of a lion skin and a quiver of poison
arrows, he easily swam across. It is surprising that he would risk in-
juring his arrows in the water. As he picked up the bow, he was startled
by the screams of his bride and discovered that Nessus was making off
with her.
Ovid showed Hercules at first warning the centaur to stop. He cau-
tioned him that he could not hope to escape with impunity, reminding
him of the punishment of Ixion. Here Ovid alluded to the familiar tradi-
tion that Ixion had attempted to ravish Juno and had been punished in
Tartarus by fastening on a whirling wheel (cf. Athamas, Bk. 4). Pindar
had spoken of Ixion as grandfather of many of the centaurs. Later
authors usually spoke of him as their father, and Ovid showed Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
alluding to this idea. Since the warning was addressed over a torrential
river to a centaur in rapid flight, Ovid made it improbably long and
rhetorical. Finding that words had no effect, Hercules shot an arrow.
It pierced Nessus between his equine shoulders and protruded from his
chest on the other side. As Nessus pulled it out, blood spurted both in
front and behind.
Ovid then departed radically from Nicander. He imagined that
Nessus wore a tunic over the human part of his body. Muttering, "I
shall not die unavenged," the centaur caught enough warm blood in his
hands to soak the tunic and then offered this garment as a love charm.
Presumably Deianira had failed to hear the threat. Ovid did not suggest
how she could take the tunic with her, unobserved by Hercules.
Passing over a number of years, Ovid declared that the great
achievements of Hercules filled the earth. The Iliad had spoken of Juno
as always hostile, observing that Hercules succumbed at length to fate
and the wrath of Juno. Euripides in his Hercules Furens had shown her
persecuting the hero after the completion of his famous labors. But
the Manual indicated that, when she had compelled him to perform
twelve of them, she was content. Ovid made a compromise between the
two ideas. With the Manual he supposed that Juno was appeased. With
the poets he agreed that Hercules believed her hostile to the last. He
showed the hero declaring later in the tale that Juno was weary of im-
posing tasks but still was afflicting him.
After noting a lapse of years, Ovid mentioned the destruction of a
city named Oechalia. Regarding its location Greek authors held various
opinions. The Iliad mentioned it first as lying southwest in Messenia,
near the home of Nestor, but later referred to it as lying northwards in
Thessaly. Both passages named Eurytus as the king. The Odyssey re-
peated the first idea, that it was in Messenia. Bacchylides implied that
it was neither there nor in Thessaly but on the island of Euboea.
Sophocles localized it in the middle of the island, and this afterwards
became the usual opinion.
The Odyssey had associated Hercules with Iphitus, eldest son of
King Eurytus. That prince went in search of a number of mares, which
had become lost, and eventually found them at Tiryns in the possession
of Hercules. Under a pretense of hospitality, the Odyssey continued,
Hercules received Iphitus into his house and then treacherously mur-
dered him. Greek authors afterwards tried in various ways to lessen the
heinous nature of the crime. Pherecydes declared that Hercules did not
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
kill the prince in his house but lured him out on the city walls and threw
him to the ground below. Sophocles observed that he did not lure him out
on the walls but met him there by chance. The Manual explained that
Hercules acted without ill intent while temporarily insane.
The Odyssey implied that Hercules had stolen the mares, and Dio-
dorus stated it as a fact. The Manual spoke of them as having been
stolen by the thief Autolycus. In any case the motive for killing Iphitus
was not primarily desire for the animals but resentment against King
Eurytus. This idea was not mentioned in the Odyssey but appeared more
and more clearly in the work of later authors. According to the Odyssey,
Eurytus died before his son went on the quest. But Sophocles and most
authors following him spoke of Eurytus as alive until some time after the
murder.
As a primitive community regarded homicide, the injured parties
were limited ordinarily to members of the victim's immediate family.
They were expected to exact a penalty from the person responsible for
the loss of their kinsman. But the penalty was not necessarily death.
If the killer was wealthy and powerful, he might atone by a payment of
money; or, if he enjoyed the favor of a powerful patron, the latter
might make this atonement for him. Such atonement was described as
occurring more than once in the Icelandic Nialsaga and as occurring
also in the Greek myth of Hercules. The hero arranged to have Apollo
conciliate the family of Iphitus. The god was to sell Hercules into
slavery and pay the money to the bereaved family. This incident was
mentioned by Aeschylus in his Agamemnon and was told in full by
Pherecydes. In earlier accounts, payment was made to the sons of
Iphitus; in later accounts, which assumed that Eurytus still was alive,
payment was made to him. Hercules became a slave of the Lydian queen
Omphale, but only for a limited period -- according to Sophocles, for
a year.
The early epic called Taking of Oechalia first mentioned Hercules
as waging war against the city. Bacchylides noted that he left it a prey
to fire. Sophocles recorded a number of the circumstances. Hercules
fell in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus, and courted her despite the
fact that he was married to Deianira. Her father rejected him, not
because he was married but for some other reason. Angered at the re-
fusal, Hercules killed Iphitus and atoned for the crime by slavery in
Lydia. After his release he assembled an army in Trachin, attacked
and destroyed Oechalia, and took Iole captive. Sophocles implied that
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Eurytus perished with the fall of the town, an idea which later authors
often recorded explicitly. In the Hippolytus, Euripides declared that
amid fire and smoke and cries of terror Iole was rowed away to Hercules.
The Manual related the courtship of Iole more closely to other
events in the career of Hercules. It supposed the courtship to have be-
gun long before the time of his marriage to Deianira. After finishing
the twelve labors, Hercules learned that Eurytus had offered his daugh-
ter as prize to anyone who should vanquish him in archery. Being then
without a wife, he entered the contest and won. But Eurytus, alleging
that he might again go mad and kill his children, refused to give him the
prize and drove him out of the city. After the murder of Iphitus and
the atonement, Hercules married Deianira and undertook various enter-
prizes which occupied him for many years. Still unwilling to give up
Iole, he at last made his expedition against Oechalia. In the Epistle of
Deianira, Ovid already had told about Hercules as a slave of Omphale.
Having no interest in the war, he passed immediately to the ensuing
events.
After the capture of Oechalia, said Bacchylides, Hercules went to
the Cenaean Promontory and began preparing for a sacrifice in honor
of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pallas. This promontory formed the north-
western end of Euboea. Probably Bacchylides imagined the ceremony
as about to be performed high on the western side of the mountains, near
a town called Dium. Meanwhile Hercules planned that Iole should be
conveyed to his home, which was then at Trachin, on the mainland a
little north of Euboea. Deianira, receiving news of his intention, be-
came jealous and resorted to the love charm -- a fatal mistake.
Sophocles gave a clearer and more detailed account. Before Her-
cules undertook the war against Oechalia, he had promised that, if the
outcome should be favorable, he would offer a sacrifice on the Cenaean
Promontory. Sophocles imagined the offering as planned in honor of
Jupiter alone, an idea followed by most authors afterwards. Hyllus,
who now was old enough to go in search of his father, met Hercules near
the Promontory and decided to wait for the ceremony before returning
home. Meanwhile Hercules despatched a party in charge of the herald
Lichas for conveying Iole and other captives to Trachin.
Lichas, purposely arriving a little in advance of the others, endeav-
ored to forestall resentment on the part of Deianira. He informed her
that Hercules had made war in order to avenge humiliations occasioned
by Eurytus. When Iole arrived, Lichas pretended ignorance of her
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
identity. Deianira received her kindly and pitied her forlorn state.
Later someone acquainted with the facts told Deianira the real situation.
She questioned Lichas and got him to confess the deception, for which
he assumed entire responsibility. Sophocles imagined Deianira's atti-
tude as primitive and yet dignified and even noble. This was not the
first time, she said, that Hercules had loved some other woman. Regard-
ing the passion of love as irresistible, she always looked on such affairs
as his misfortune and not his fault. She did not blame Iole, and she
sympathized with her misfortunes. But in one respect this affair was
more grave than the others. Instead of letting it remain an incident of
some distant quest, Hercules was bringing Iole back to his permanent
residence. Deianira was willing to share the home with Iole, but she
feared that Hercules might think his new favorite so attractive that he
would lose all interest in Deianira. To prevent this extremity, she re-
sorted to the love charm.
Secretly smearing a tunic with the blood of Nessus, she put it in a
wooden box and delivered it to Lichas as a gift for Hercules to wear at
the ceremony. Apparently Sophocles thought the color of the tunic
would have prevented anyone from observing stains of blood. But it was
unlikely that after many years the blood of Nessus could be used in this
manner. Deianira gave instructions that until the hour of the ceremony
the tunic was to be kept in a cool, dark place. Lichas probably would
have supposed this to mean that he needed to protect the dye, which in
ancient times was apt to fade, if exposed to the sun (cf. Arachne,
Bk. 6). He departed without suspicion.
Deianira had applied the philter by soaking it up with a handful
of wool and then had thrown the wool on the ground. It fell in a sunny
place. She now observed with horror that the blood boiled, consumed
the wool to dust, and then foamed on the ground. Remembering how it
was mingled with venom of the hydra, she suspected that Nessus must
have plotted against her husband's life, and she resolved in that case to
die. This account Ovid appears to have recalled in his Tristia, for he
mentioned Iole and Deianira as examples of a love story that became
the theme of tragedy.
The Manual, retelling the story briefly, differed at several points.
Hercules, it said, kept Iole with him and sent Lichas to fetch clothing
appropriate for the ceremony. Apparently without hesitation, Lichas
told Deianira about Iole, and she smeared the tunic with blood of Nessus.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
The Manual said nothing about her observing any ominous effect on the
wool.
Ovid treated the subject first in his Epistle of Deianira to Hercules.
Although he took a number of particulars from Sophocles, he made
several important innovations. A rumor, spreading widely through the
Greek cities, informed Deianira that Hercules was in love with Iole.
Then the princess arrived, proud and in rich array. Ovid imagined
Deianira as acting the part of the ordinary jealous wife. She immedi-
ately sent the tunic and then began writing a letter to scold Hercules
at some length, not only for the present disloyalty but also for all the
others. Learning in some degree the fatal nature of her gift, she resolved
to be a sister worthy of the brave Meleager and to take her own life.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid repeated his idea that Deianira heard
the news by rumor, but he made it more striking. Vergil in the Aeneid
had spoken of a personified Rumor (or Fame) as informing Iarbas
about the relations of Dido and Aeneas. Ovid declared that the same
character informed Deianira about the relations of Hercules and Iole.
The Iliad had spoken of Discord (Eris) as small at first but increasing
rapidly until she walks on the ground and conceals her head in the
clouds. Vergil associated this idea with Rumor and added that she re-
ports indiscriminately both false and true. He may have intended the
reader to suppose that her account of Aeneas was partly false. Ovid
repeated these details of Vergil's description, with more emphasis on the
idea of falsehood, but the message seemed to be wholly true.
Ovid recounted Deianira's behavior immediately after hearing the
news. Inventing his details, he again portrayed her as less dignified than
the heroine of Sophocles. In accord with the Manual, he assumed that
Iole had not arrived in Trachin. At first Deianira wept bitterly. Then,
like Medea (Bk. 7), she considered her problem in a soliloquy. Recall-
ing Sophocles, Ovid imagined her reflecting that Iole would come and
usurp her place. She mentioned various courses that lay open to her.
As one of these, she might remember that she was Meleager's sister and
do a dreadful deed, such as killing her rival. The allusion to Meleager
murdering his uncles was impressive, but Ovid forgot that in the pre-
vious tale he had spoken of the Calydonian Boar Hunt as occurring at
a later time, after the death of Hercules. Deianira resolved at last to
send the tunic. Ovid implied that it was the same tunic which formerly
had been worn by Nessus. That it still would retain the blood was
probable, as will be evident to those who have gazed at the light blue
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
sweater of Charles First of England and have observed after nearly
three hundred years the reddish stains of his execution. In this matter,
Ovid improved on his predecessors. But it was unlikely that a tunic
worn by Nessus and now soiled and blood-stained would be acceptable
to Hercules.
Although Ovid had said that Rumor brought the news, he agreed
with the Manual that Lichas was come for clothing and that Deianira
gave him the tunic. And, like Sophocles, he noted that she sent it with
a gracious message to her lord. Ovid pointed out that neither Deianira
nor Lichas realized the nature of the gift. To Lichas, he said, ignorant
of what he was to deliver, she all unwitting delivers with her own hands
the cause of her future woe. And he added that Hercules was unaware
of what he was receiving. Although Ovid's phrasing was artificial, he
did well to show that all three acted in fatal ignorance.
Putting on the tunic, Hercules began the ceremony. Ovid may
have supposed that Hyllus was present, but he did not indicate it at
any point in the story. Already a flame was kindled on the altar. Her-
cules proceeded to offer wine and incense. As a matter of historical
fact, incense was unknown to the early Greeks. But Vergil had spoken
of Queen Amata and Lavinia as offering it on the morning of the cavalry
battle. Ovid followed Vergil's example, both here and elsewhere in his
poem. Afterwards Seneca followed Ovid in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta,
and Racine and Goethe revived the Roman practice in their own dramas
about ancient times.
Tradition had assumed that, as Hercules approached the altar
his tunic was exposed suddenly to light and heat both from the sun and
from the flames of the altar. The flames usually were thought to have
exerted the more potent effect. Soon the hydra venom became active,
with dire results. Hercules, believing that Lichas had plotted his death,
killed him. Aeschylus alluded to this incident in his Glaucus Pontius and
referred to the herald's grave as in Euboea.
Sophocles told the story in detail. After putting on the tunic,
Hercules at first proceeded with the sacrifice, proud and happy. All at
once a heavy sweat appeared on his face and limbs, and the tunic stuck
fast to his skin. The venom, working inwards, gave him racking pains.
He questioned Lichas, who disclaimed any ill intent. Then maddened
with the pain, Hercules seized Lichas by the ankle and hurled him from
the mountainside into the sea. As Lichas fell, his head struck a rock,
which lay among the waves. The blow dashed out his brains. Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
in agony sometimes fell to the ground, at other times leaped high in
air, while the capes on both sides of the water echoed with his cries. He
cursed his wife, who had sent the fatal gift. As the heat of the poison
obscured him in a cloud of smoke, he bade Hyllus take him from the un-
hallowed place. Led aboard a ship, he lapsed into an exhausted sleep.
Hyllus proceeded with him to Trachin, and told the appalling news to
Deianira. She killed herself with a sword.
On Mt. Oeta, a little south of Trachin, there was an ancient shrine
where either human victims or puppets were burned as offerings. Tradi-
tion ascribed the origin of the practice to Hercules. This idea was re-
corded in an early poem called The Marriage of Ceyx. Sophocles showed
the hero ordering his son to convey him up the mountain and then con-
struct a pyre and burn his still living body. He permitted Hyllus to
leave for someone else the duty of lighting the pyre. In the Trachinian
Women, Sophocles did not tell who undertook this duty, but in the
Philoctetes he spoke of that hero as performing the task and obtaining
as his reward the bow of Hercules, which later proved essential for the
capture of Troy. Ovid alluded twice in his Ibis to the account of Soph-
ocles.
