Τραχίνιαι
Women of Trachis
Sophocles · Date unknown
Deianeira learns that Heracles is bringing home a young captive as his mistress. She sends him a robe soaked in what she believes is a love charm. It is poison.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Δη.Deianeira
- Τρ.Nurse
- Υλ.Hyllus
- Χο.Chorus
- Αγ.Messenger
- Λι.Lichas
- Ημ. ΑʹFirst Semichorus
- Ημ. ΒʹSecond Semichorus
- Πρ.Old Man
- Ηρ.Heracles
Translations
- R. C. Jebbprose · 1883–1900 · aligned by line · with Jebb's Greek
- F. Storrverse · 1913 · aligned by speech · with Storr's Greek
Greek texts
- Dain & Mazon, Sophocle, vol. 11955
- F. Storr, Sophocles, vol. 21913
- R. C. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, part 5, The Trachiniae1892
Cite as Soph. Trach. 1–1278
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Deianeira waits at Trachis for Heracles, gone fifteen months. News comes that he is on his way home victorious, and among the captives he sends ahead is a girl, Iole, whom he has taken as a lover. Deianeira has kept a charm the centaur Nessus gave her as he died: his blood, he said, would win back a straying husband. She smears it on a robe and sends it to Heracles. It is poison; it eats into him. She kills herself when she learns what she has done. Heracles, dying, orders his son Hyllus to burn him alive on Mount Oeta and to marry Iole.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1843 plate of a red-figure pelike formerly in the Durand collection (Gerhard, Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder II, Taf. CXVI, "Herakles und Hyllos"); cut out and retraced.