Women from Trachis

            Deeanera, Hercules’ wife is living with friends in Trahina, waiting for her husband. Worried about what might have happened to him, she decides to send to Evoia (an island near Athens and Thebes) her son Yllos to search for his father.

            After the departure of Yllos Lichas arrives accompanying some women hastages. One of them was Iole, Hercules’ mistress. When Deeanera finds out who she was and that she was having an affair with her Hercules, she decides to get her husband back. She engages Lichas to find Hercules and give him a portion that kentaurus Nessos had given to her, before he died after his battle against Hercules. She thought that with that magic portion she would get Hercules back. She soaked a shirt in it and sent it to him. Unfortunately it was a deadly poison. Hercules dies and Deeanera when she discovers that she’s been conned by Nessos and that she killed her husband she kills herself.

            Hercules is being carried to the scene, a few moments before his death. When he finds out that the portion was a “gift” from Nessos, he remembers the omen, saying that he would die by a dead man. He accepts his fate with relief, feeling that he ‘d accomplished his mission on earth.