Women of Trachis

Women of Trachis shows the death of Heracles through the actions of his wife Deianira. The play is set before the house of Heracles at Trachis, where the family lives in exile after Heracles killed Iphitus (Trachiniae 38–40). Heracles has been away for fifteen months, and a tablet that he left says that at the end of that period he will either die or live afterwards without toil (44–48, 155–168). Deianira sends her son Hyllus to look for him (61–93). A messenger and then the herald Lichas bring news that Heracles has sacked Oechalia, and Lichas brings captive women, among them the silent Iole (180–334). Deianira learns from the messenger that Heracles took the city for love of Iole, and Lichas confirms it (335–496). To win back her husband's love she sends him, by Lichas, a robe anointed with the blood of the centaur Nessus (531–632). She then sees that the tuft of wool with which she spread the blood has crumbled in the sun, and realises that Nessus has deceived her (663–733). Hyllus comes and tells her that the robe has tortured Heracles, who has killed Lichas (734–812). Deianira kills herself with a sword (863–946). Heracles is brought to Trachis in agony, learns from Hyllus that she acted without knowing, recognises that the oracles are fulfilled in his death, and asks to be carried to Mount Oeta and burned (971–1278).

Date and Historical Background

No ancient source records the year of the first production of Women of Trachis, its festival or its prize, and nothing in the text settles the date, so its place in the career of Sophocles is unknown. What the play does provide is the myth that it dramatises: Heracles won Deianira from the river-god Achelous (Trachiniae 6–21, 507–530), killed the centaur Nessus at the river Evenus (555–577), served Omphale in Lydia for a year (248–254), killed Iphitus after Eurytus had insulted him (262–280) and sacked Oechalia (351–374, 476–489).

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Deianira, daughter of Oeneus, who lived at Pleuron in Aetolia, and wife of Heracles
• Nurse of Deianira (49–60, 863–946)
• Hyllus, the oldest son of Deianira and Heracles
• Messenger, an old man who brings the first news of Heracles and later exposes Lichas (180–204, 335–435)
• Lichas, Heracles’ herald
• Chorus of women of Trachis
• Captives from Oechalia, among them Iole, daughter of Eurytus (silent role)
• Old Man and attendants who carry in Heracles
• Heracles, who appears only at the end (983–1278)

Setting

The scene is the front of the house of Heracles and Deianira at Trachis, near Mount Oeta and the Malian gulf (Trachiniae 633–640). Heracles has been away from there for fifteen months. Everything that happens in Euboea is told by messengers.

Summary of Women of Trachis

Prologue

Deianira opens the play (Trachiniae 1–48). She begins with the old saying that no one can judge a life until it is over, and says that her own has been unhappy since she was a girl in her father’s house at Pleuron: the river-god Achelous, who came as a bull, a snake and a bull-faced man, wanted to marry her, until Heracles fought him and set her free (6–27). Since her marriage she has been afraid for Heracles all the time; he saw his children only as a farmer sees a distant field, and she lives as a stranger in Trachis since he killed Iphitus (28–40). He has been away for fifteen months, and the tablet he left with her makes her fear the worst (41–48).

The Nurse tells her to send Hyllus to look for his father (49–60). Hyllus arrives and says that he has heard that Heracles served for a year as a slave to a Lydian woman, has now been released, and is making war on Euboea, the city of Eurytus (61–75). Deianira tells him that Heracles has left oracles about this land: that he will either end his life, or, if he survives this contest, live happily afterwards (76–85). Hyllus, who did not know of these prophecies, says that he will go to his father (86–91).

Parodos (Entrance Song)

The Chorus of women of Trachis enters and invokes the Sun to tell where Heracles is (Trachiniae 94–102). They sympathise with Deianira, who, like a mournful bird, never rests from fear for her husband (103–111). His life, they say, is like the waves driven by the south or north wind, but some god always saves him from Hades (112–121). They tell her not to give up hope, for Zeus does not appoint a painless life to mortals, and sorrow and joy come round like the stars of the Bear (122–140).

First Episode

Deianira answers that young girls do not know what she suffers, and she then explains the cause of her fear (Trachiniae 141–177). Before he left, Heracles had told her what her marriage portion would be and how his land was to be divided among his sons, and had said that if he was away for a year and three months he would either die or live afterwards without toil, as the oak at Dodona had told him. That term has now come. A messenger appears, crowned with garlands, to say that Heracles is alive and victorious and is sending first-fruits to the gods; Lichas is telling the news in the meadow, but the crowd of Malians keeps him from coming further (180–199). Deianira calls on the women to cry out for joy (200–204), and the Chorus sings a joyful paean (205–224).

Lichas arrives with the captive women (225–232). He tells Deianira that Heracles is well and is offering sacrifice to Cenaean Zeus on a headland of Euboea, and that these women are the spoils chosen for himself and the gods from the city of Eurytus (233–247). He tells why Heracles was away so long: he was sold as a slave to Omphale, and swore to enslave Eurytus’ family, because Eurytus had insulted him as a guest, saying that his sons were better with the bow, and had thrown him out drunk from a banquet (248–269). Then Heracles hurled Iphitus from the heights of Tiryns, and Zeus sold him as punishment for killing by guile (270–280).

Deianira is moved by the sight of the captives, and speaks to one of them who stands out, asking who she is and whether she is a mother (293–313). Lichas says that he does not know; the girl will not speak (314–328). Deianira tells her to go in (329–334). Then the messenger takes her aside and tells her that Lichas has lied: in the public place he said that the cause of the war was the desire of Heracles for this girl, who is Iole, daughter of Eurytus, whom her father had refused to give him (335–374). Deianira cries out at what she has taken into her house, and the Chorus advises her to question Lichas (375–392). Lichas first denies the story and says that the messenger is mad (393–435). Deianira begs for the truth: she is not cruel, she knows that all are prone to love, and Eros rules gods and herself, so why should she blame her husband or the girl, who has done her no wrong (436–469)? Lichas admits that Heracles has been conquered by his longing for Iole, and that he hid it only to spare her pain (472–489). Deianira says that she will not fight against the gods, and invites him in to take gifts to Heracles (490–496). In the first stasimon the Chorus sings of the power of Cypris and the fight of Heracles and Achelous for the bride, while the girl sat on a hill and waited to see who would be her husband (497–530).

Second Episode

Deianira comes out alone to the Chorus while Lichas is still saying farewell to the captives (Trachiniae 531–534). She has taken a maiden into her house, she says, like a mariner taking cargo, and now two women lie under one cover waiting for one man (535–542). She does not know how to be angry with Heracles, but she asks what woman could bear to share the same marriage, with the other’s youth in bloom and her own fading (543–551). She has a way of relief. Long ago, when Nessus the centaur carried her across the river Evenus for a fee, he touched her, and Heracles shot him through the chest (555–565). The dying centaur told her to gather the blood around the wound, which was tainted with the Hydra’s venom from the arrow, since it would be a charm to keep Heracles from loving any other woman more than her (566–577). She has smeared a robe with it (580–587). The Chorus says that if there is reason for confidence, the plan is not bad, and Deianira answers that she has not tested it (588–597).

Lichas comes for his orders (598–599). Deianira gives him the robe in a sealed chest, to be given to Heracles, with the instruction that no one else is to put it on and that it must not be seen by sunlight, by the sacred precinct or by the hearth fire until Heracles puts it on in sight of all on a day for sacrificing bulls (600–620). She sends a seal as token (614–615). Lichas promises to deliver it faithfully (620–632). The second stasimon is a hymn of hope: the Chorus calls on the people of the Malian shores to prepare a flute-song for Heracles’ return, and prays that he may come full of love for his wife through the persuasion of the charm (633–662).

Third Episode

Deianira returns in fear that she has gone too far (Trachiniae 663–671). The tuft of wool with which she had spread the blood on the robe has fallen on the ground in the sunlight, she says, and crumbled to dust like sawdust, while the earth where it lay seethes with a clotted foam like the wine of the vine (672–704). She sees that Nessus meant to destroy the man who shot him, for the same venom of the Hydra that killed other beasts must kill Heracles; and if he dies she will die too, since no woman can bear a bad reputation if she is good in nature (705–722). The Chorus tells her that those who err without knowing are forgiven (723–733).

Hyllus arrives and tells his mother that she has killed his father (734–748). He tells her what he saw (749–812). On the headland of Cenaeum Lichas came with the robe, and Heracles put it on and began to offer twelve bulls; but when the flame rose, a sweat broke out on his skin, the robe clung to his sides and pain bit his bones as the venom devoured him. He called for Lichas, who said it was a gift from Deianira alone, and in his agony seized Lichas by the foot and threw him against a rock in the sea (756–782). No one dared to go near him as he screamed and threw himself on the ground; when he saw Hyllus he asked to be carried away, and they put him on a ship (783–806). He will soon be here, either alive or dead. Hyllus calls on the Furies to punish his mother. She leaves without a word (807–820). In the third stasimon the Chorus says that the old prophecy is fulfilled, since the twelfth year has come, and the dead no longer toil; Nessus, dead, is killing him (821–862).

Fourth Episode

The Chorus hears a cry from the house, and the Nurse comes out to say that Deianira is dead (Trachiniae 863–899). She did it with a sword, the Nurse saw it: Deianira went round the house, touching familiar things and weeping, then went into the bedroom of Heracles and made up his bed, and said farewell to her bridal chamber (900–922). She loosened her robe and bared her left side (923–926). The Nurse ran to warn Hyllus, but when they came back, she had driven a two-edged sword through her side to the heart (927–931). Hyllus cried out, for he had learned from the servants that she had acted without knowing, at the centaur’s prompting, and he threw himself beside her, saying that he had accused her wrongly and was now orphaned of both parents (932–942). The Nurse ends with the saying that no man should count on the next day, until today has safely passed (943–946). The Chorus cannot decide which disaster to mourn first (947–952), and they fear to see Heracles brought in (953–970).

Exodos (Exit Song)

A procession of strange men carries Heracles in silence (Trachiniae 971–981). Hyllus laments, and the Old Man warns him not to wake the sleeper (972–982). Heracles wakes in agony and cries out to Zeus, asking who will heal him and begging his son to strike him with a sword or end his pain (983–1043). He tells the Chorus that none of his labours was as hard as this net of the Furies woven by the daughter of Oeneus, which has eaten his flesh; a woman alone, he says, without a sword, has brought him down (1046–1075). He lists his labours, the lion of Nemea, the Hydra, the centaurs, the boar of Erymanthus, the hound of Hades and the dragon of the Hesperides, and says that he will punish her (1089–1111). Hyllus tells him that she is dead by her own hand, and that she wanted a love charm for him, from Nessus (1114–1142).

Heracles understands at once (1143–1156). His father had foretold that he would be killed by no living creature but by one dead, a dweller in Hades, and the centaur has done this; and the later oracle that the oak of Zeus in the grove of the Selli gave him, that his release from toils would come at the present time, meant only that he would die, since the dead do not toil (1157–1178). He asks Hyllus for an oath, and makes him swear to carry him to the summit of Mount Oeta, to build a pyre of oak and wild olive and burn him there, without tears (1179–1202). Hyllus is horrified, since he would have to be his father’s killer, and refuses to light the fire himself, though he will do all else (1203–1218). Heracles then orders him to marry Iole after his death, for none but his son may have her who lay by his side (1219–1229). Hyllus protests that Iole is to blame for his mother’s death and his father’s condition (1230–1237), but yields, and calls on the gods to witness that he only obeys (1238–1251). Heracles asks to be placed on the pyre before the pain returns (1252–1263). As the attendants lift him, Hyllus asks them and the Chorus to remember the great cruelty of the gods in what is done: they beget children and are called fathers, and yet they look on at such sufferings; no one can see the future, and in all this, there is nothing that is not Zeus (1264–1278).

A Brief Analysis

The structure of Women of Trachis is simple: the first half is about Deianira, who is on stage in every episode up to her exit at 820 and whose death is reported (863–946), and the last third is about Heracles, who appears for the first time at 983. Between the two parts is the chorus song that links the oracle to the robe (821–862). The two halves are bound together by the oracles: the tablet that Deianira mentions (44–48, 155–168), the prophecy of the dead killer (1159–1163) and the promise of release from toils (1166–1173) are all fulfilled by the same event.

Deianira is shown as a wife who is hurt and who acts out of love and fear, not out of anger. She says that she does not know how to be angry with Heracles (543–544), that Eros rules gods and men (441–446), and that she pities Iole (307–313, 463–468). When she sends the robe it is, in her words, a means to keep him (584–587), and when she sees that it is destroying him she decides at once to die with him (719–722). The play repeatedly treats her act as done in ignorance: the Chorus says so (727–728), Hyllus learns it from the servants (934–935) and tells his father (1136–1142).

Heracles in the exodos is a man who rages at his own helplessness. He cries out for death (1031–1040), says that he who never wept now weeps like a girl (1070–1075), and wants Deianira handed over to him for punishment (1066–1069, 1107–1111). When he learns the truth he turns at once to the oracles and to the commands for the pyre and the marriage of Hyllus and Iole (1143–1251). Hyllus makes clear that this is a heavy demand on him, and the play ends with his complaint against the gods (1264–1278).

The play has been compared with Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, in which a husband brings home a captive woman and is killed by his wife. The comparison is useful for the difference: Deianira has no plan to kill (she says that she wants only a charm, 584–587), has nothing against Iole, and kills herself, while Heracles in his agony kills Lichas, who had done nothing but carry the gift (772–782).

Women of Trachis Sources

The main source for this page is the play itself: Sophocles, Women of Trachis (Trachiniae) 1–1278, read in the Greek text (Perseus Digital Library). Aeschylus, Agamemnon, is mentioned for the comparison only.

See Also: Sophocles, Deianira, Heracles, Shirt of Nessus