Women of Trachis

A tragedy by Sophocles in which Deianira unwittingly causes Heracles’ death by using a poisoned garment, leading to his apotheosis.

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Deianira: The wife of Heracles who unwittingly sends him a garment treated with the centaur Nessus’s poisoned blood. Her attempt to restore Heracles’ love sets the tragedy’s catastrophe in motion.
Greek tragedy: A form of ancient Greek drama that stages grave conflicts involving human beings, divine powers, and fate. The play belongs to this dramatic tradition and uses its conventions of suffering and recognition.
Heracles in Greek mythology: A Greek mythological hero whose feats, family, death, and worship varied across ancient traditions. Sophocles draws on a larger body of Heracles stories while centering Deianira’s perspective.
Antigone: A tragedy by Sophocles in which Antigone defies King Creon to bury her brother Polynices. Its heroine acts knowingly against authority, unlike Deianira’s unintended role in catastrophe.
Nessus’ blood: The poisoned blood of the centaur Nessus, which Deianira preserves and applies to Heracles’ garment. It converts a supposed love charm into the physical cause of Heracles’ torment.
Heracles: A Greek hero renowned for extraordinary strength and for completing twelve labors imposed by Eurystheus. His agonizing death and final passage to divine status complete the play’s action.
Heracles’ labors: A cycle of twelve dangerous tasks Heracles performed for King Eurystheus as atonement for killing his family. The labors establish the heroic past that contrasts with Heracles’ vulnerable final hours.
Sophocles: An Athenian playwright of the fifth century BCE whose surviving works include Oedipus the King and Antigone. He composed the tragedy and shaped its distinctive focus on Deianira.
Oedipus the King: A Sophoclean tragedy in which Oedipus discovers that he unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Both plays make belated knowledge devastating, but Oedipus investigates a crime while Deianira discovers an accident.
The poisoned robe of Heracles: The garment Deianira sends Heracles, which adheres to his body and burns him when exposed to heat. The robe makes the play’s unseen danger visible through Heracles’ escalating physical agony.