Sophocles’ Women of Trachis shows Heracles’ wife, Deianira, waiting for her husband’s triumphant return. However, she learns that he is bringing back a mistress, so sends Heracles a coat soaked in what she believes is love potion to keep him loyal. However, she was tricked by a centaur Heracles killed, and the potion is actually poison from the Hydra.
Hyllus (different from Hylas), Heracles’ son, comes and curses his mother, for the poison is causing Heracles great pain. Distraught, Deianira kills herself. Heracles is brought on and in agony, charges his son to burn him alive on a mountaintop, and marry the mistress who caused all this strife. Fearing his father’s curses, he agrees.
It’s certainly a tragic play, and evokes pity both for misled Deianira, for suffering Heracles, despite all his philandering, and for Hyllus, who loses both his parents on one day.
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