Classical Mythology

(^536) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
The Death of Nessus. Detail of an Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 620 B.C.; height of vase
48 in., of painting 14 in. The scene is painted on the neck of the vase, with owls a swan
fn i? 5^n °Vhe handlGS- The names of Heracles (written right to left) and Nessus
(spelled Netos ) are given. Heracles finishes Nessus off with a sword, grasping his hair
and violently thrusting his left foot into the Centaur's back. He ignores the pleas of Nes-
sus for mercy shown by the gesture of touching the chin. The hero does not wear the
honskm, nor does he carry his club and bow. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Greece/Foto/Marburg/Art Resource, New York.)
THE DEATH OF HERACLES
Deianira, meanwhile, was living in Trachis, where King Ceyx had received her
and Heracles after they left the Péloponnèse. According to Sophocles, whose Tra-
chimae is the most important source for the last part of Heracles' life, she knew
nothing of Oechalia and lole until the herald Lichas brought news of the sack
of the city. She had not seen Heracles for fifteen months, before his servitude to
Omphale. In this account Heracles killed Eurytus and sacked Oechalia on his
way back from Asia, sending lole and the other captive women back to Trachis
with Lichas. When she realized that Heracles loved lole, Deianira, hoping to win
him back, dipped a robe in the blood of Nessus and sent it to Heracles by Lichas'
hand for him to wear at his thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus.
As the flames of the sacrificial fire warmed the poisoned blood, the robe