as he was travelling with his wife, they came to a river, across which the Centaur Nessus carried travellers for a stated fee.  Hercules himself forded the river, but gave Dejanira to Nessus to be carried across.  Nessus attempted to run away with her, but Hercules heard her cries and shot an arrow into the heart of Nessus.  The dying Centaur told Dejanira to take a portion of his blood and keep it, as it might be used as a charm to preserve the love of her husband.

Dejanira did so and before long fancied she had occasion to use it.  Hercules in one of his conquests had taken prisoner a fair maiden, named Iole, of whom he seemed more fond than Dejanira approved.  When Hercules was about to offer sacrifices to the gods in honor of his victory, he sent to his wife for a white robe to use on the occasion.  Dejanira, thinking it a good opportunity to try her love-spell, steeped the garment in the blood of Nessus.  We are to suppose she took care to wash out all traces of it, but the magic power remained, and as soon as the garment became warm on the body of Hercules the poison penetrated into all his limbs and caused him the most intense agony.  In his frenzy he seized Lichas, who had brought him the fatal robe, and hurled him into the sea.  He wrenched off the garment, but it stuck to his flesh, and with it he tore away whole pieces of his body.  In this state he embarked on board a ship and was conveyed home.  Dejanira, on seeing what she had unwittingly done, hung herself.  Hercules, prepared to die, ascended Mount Oeta, where he built a funeral pile of trees, gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes, and laid himself down on the pile, his head resting on his club, and his lion’s skin spread over him.  With a countenance as serene as if he were taking his place at a festal board he commanded Philoctetes to apply the torch.  The flames spread apace and soon invested the whole mass.

Milton thus alludes to the frenzy of Hercules: 

   “As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
    With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
    Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines
    And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
    Into the Euboic Sea.”

[Footnote:  Alcides, a name of Hercules.]

The gods themselves felt troubled at seeing the champion of the earth so brought to his end.  But Jupiter with cheerful countenance thus addressed them:  “I am pleased to see your concern, my princes, and am gratified to perceive that I am the ruler of a loyal people, and that my son enjoys your favor.  For although your interest in him arises from his noble deeds, yet it is not the less gratifying to me.  But now I say to you, Fear not.  He who conquered all else is not to be conquered by those flames which you see blazing on Mount Oeta.  Only his mother’s share in him can perish; what he derived from me is immortal.  I shall take him, dead to earth, to the heavenly shores, and I require of you all to receive him kindly.  If any of you