Dejanira

Dejanira, also Deianira, is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the wife of Heracles. She is described as a Calydonian princess, commonly said to be the daughter of King Oeneus. In the myth, while traveling with Heracles, Nessus the centaur attempted to abduct Deianira at the river Evenus. Heracles killed Nessus with an arrow dipped in a poison he himself had received from the Hydra, and Nessus, in his dying words, claimed that his blood could act as a love charm to secure Heracles’s faithfulness.

Dejanira later obtained Nessus’s blood and, in various tellings, used it as a safeguard of fidelity or as a remedy against apparent infidelity. In most versions, she provides Heracles with a garment soaked in the centaur’s poisonous blood, believing it will strengthen their bond. The poison proves deadly: when Heracles wears the cloak, his flesh is burned by an uncontrollable fire. He ultimately dies on Mount Oeta, although he is reconciled with the gods and granted immortality in some accounts, after his mortal suffering ends.

Dejanira and Heracles have a son, Hyllus, who becomes a leading figure of the Heracleidae and leads the return of the hero’s descendants to the Greek homeland after Heracles’s death. The later fate of Dejanira varies by source; some traditions describe her death as a result of grief, while others offer different endings. Dejanira remains a central figure in the narrative arc surrounding Heracles, illustrating themes of love, trust, and tragedy in myth.