Shirt of Nessus

Myths / Elements / Shirt of Nessus

The Shirt of Nessus (also called the Tunic of Nessus) was the poisoned garment that caused the death of the hero Heracles. It was smeared with the blood of the centaur Nessus, which had been mixed with the venom of the Lernaean Hydra, and was sent to Heracles by his wife Deianeira, who believed it was a love charm.

Nessus and Deianeira

Heracles, taking his wife Deianeira with him, came to the river Evenus, where the centaur Nessus sat ferrying passengers across for a fee. Heracles crossed by himself and, when asked to pay, entrusted Deianeira to Nessus to carry over. In mid-crossing Nessus tried to violate her. She cried out, and Heracles shot the centaur through the heart as he came out of the river (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.6). In Sophocles’ account Heracles’ arrow went through Nessus’ lungs (Trachiniae 559–568; in Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.101–102, it pierces his back), and the arrow had been dipped in the venom of the Lernaean Hydra (Trachiniae 573–574).

Dying, Nessus called Deianeira to him. In Sophocles, he told her that if she took the clotted blood from his wound, where the arrow had been dyed with the Hydra’s black venom, it would be a charm over Heracles’ mind, so that he would love no other woman more than her (Trachiniae 569–577). In Apollodorus, he told her to mix the seed he had dropped on the ground with the blood from the wound and keep it as a love charm (Library 2.7.6). She did as he said and kept it hidden. In Diodorus, Nessus tells her to mix the seed with olive oil and the blood dripping from the barb of the arrow, and to anoint the shirt of Heracles with it (4.36.3–5).

Read next · stories with Shirt of Nessus

Iole and the gift

Years later Heracles took the city of Oechalia, killed its king Eurytus and his sons, and led away Eurytus’ daughter Iole as a captive (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7). At Cenaeum, in Euboea, he prepared a sacrifice and sent the herald Lichas to Trachis to fetch fine clothing. Lichas told Deianeira about Iole. She feared that Heracles would love the girl more than herself, and, supposing that the blood of Nessus was a love charm, she smeared the tunic with it (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7; Diodorus 4.38.1). Sophocles makes Iole the cause of her jealousy as well: Deianeira says she hates wicked daring and hopes only to win Heracles back from the girl with a love charm (Trachiniae 582–587), and Hyllus later tells his father that she erred while meaning well, thinking she was applying a love charm (Trachiniae 1136–1139). The garment is called a robe or tunic (chiton); Diodorus says that Heracles had sent for the shirt and robe he customarily wore at sacrifices (4.38.1).

The death of Heracles

Heracles put the tunic on and began the sacrifice. As soon as it grew warm, the poison of the Hydra started to eat into his skin. He seized Lichas by the feet and hurled him from the headland, and tore at the tunic, but it clung to his body and his flesh came away with it. He was carried by ship to Trachis (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7; compare Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.134–272, where Lichas, flung into the sea, hardens into a rock that still bears his name, 9.217–229).

Deianeira, on learning what she had done, killed herself. Apollodorus and Diodorus (4.38.3) say she hanged herself (Library 2.7.7); in Sophocles she drove a two-edged sword into her side (Trachiniae 930–931).

Heracles charged his eldest son Hyllus to marry Iole when he came of age. In Sophocles he also tells Hyllus to carry him to the top of Mount Oeta and burn him on a pyre (Trachiniae 1191–1199, 1219–1224). He went up to Mount Oeta, built a pyre, mounted it and told the bystanders to kindle it. No one would, until Poeas, passing by in search of his flocks, set it alight, and Heracles gave him his bow. While the pyre burned, a cloud passed under Heracles and carried him up to heaven with a peal of thunder (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7). He became immortal, was reconciled with Hera and married her daughter Hebe.