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How Heracles Died
Heracles' wife had been abducted by a centaur named Nessus on her wedding day. When Nessus was shot by a well aimed arrow from Heracles' bow, the tricky centaur told his captive that she should soak a shirt in his blood, and if she ever doubted her husband's love, she should have him wear the shirt, and Heracles would love her as strongly as ever.
The arrows that Heracles used, were dipped in the poisonous blood of the Hydra, a beast Heracles fought as one of his labours. The blood of Nessus, was therefore poisoned. When Deianira and Heracles had been married for quite some time, and she felt he was spending a little too much time with the boys and not enough with her, she gave him the shirt to wear, claiming the she had just woven it for him.
The moment Heracles donned his shirt, he was overcome by a burning irritation. No matter how much he bathed, it would not go away. Heracles was too strong to be killed by the poison, but he was unable to bare the agony. He lit a funeral pyre, and hopped aboard, burning himself to ashes.
Heracles had been half mortal, and the mortal half was guided by Hermes to the underworld, where he was welcomed to the Elysian Fields. But his immortal half was welcomed to Olympus where he became a God.
Now I the strength of Hercules behold,
A towering spectre of gigantic mould,
A shadowy form! for high in heaven's abodes
Himself resides, a god among the gods;
There in the bright assemblies of the skies.
He nectar quaffs, and Hebe crowns his joys.
Here hovering ghosts, like fowl, his shade surround.
-Oddyseus
(Hebe crowns his Joys?)
On ane of his adventures, Heracles went to the underworld to retrieve Cerberus. While there, he freed Theseus from a trap, but another classic Greek hero also went to and returned from the Underworld. His fate was to found the Kingdom that would give rise to the magnificent Romans, and his story gives us a good acount of the underworld. The Roman poet, Virgil, composed an epic poem about his adventures. It is one of the greatest Roman epics, and is known as the AEneid. The eponymous hero of the AEneid was, of course, AEneas.
Learn of the adventures of AEneas
