Nessus
Nessus was the centaur who tried to abduct Heracles' wife Deianira — and whose poisoned blood, given as a love charm, eventually killed the greatest hero.
The Myth of Nessus
Nessus was a centaur who lurked by the river Evenus, offering to ferry travellers across. When Heracles and his wife Deianira reached the crossing, Nessus offered to carry Deianira while Heracles swam. Midstream, Nessus attempted to assault her. Heracles shot him from the far bank with an arrow poisoned with the Hydra's blood — the same venom that made his weapons lethal since his second labour at Lerna. As Nessus lay dying, he whispered to Deianira that his blood would serve as a love charm. Years later, fearing Heracles loved Iole, Deianira soaked a robe in the centaur's blood and sent it to her husband. The Hydra's poison burned through his flesh, and Heracles, in agony, built a pyre and ascended to Olympus.
Symbols
Fun Fact
A "shirt of Nessus" means an inescapable torment — a gift that destroys the recipient. The phrase is still used in diplomacy and politics.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Centaur
🐉 creatureCentaur whose dying gift killed Heracles
Nessus was the centaur whose poisoned blood, given as a false love charm, ultimately destroyed the invincible Heracles.
Centaur
🐉 creatureGentle centaur host of Heracles
Pholus was a civilised centaur who hosted Heracles on his way to capture the Erymanthian Boar — accidentally triggering a battle with the other centaurs.
Iolaus Serpent
🐉 creatureserpents,regeneration
The multi-headed water serpent of Lerna whose heads regenerated when cut — the Hydra — whose blood Heracles used to poison his arrows, causing indirect deaths for generations afterward.
Deianeira
🗡 herolove, destruction
The wife of Heracles whose love inadvertently killed the greatest hero in Greek mythology when she used the poisoned shirt of Nessus.
Cenaeum
🏛 placegeography
A promontory on the northwestern tip of Euboea where Heracles built an altar and put on the fatal shirt of Nessus.
Lichas
🗡 heroNone recorded
Herald of Heracles who unwittingly delivered the poisoned robe that killed his master
Asbolus
🗡 heroProphecy, centaurs
Centaur seer who read omens in the flight of birds and warned his kin against fighting Heracles
Shirt of Nessus
💭 conceptcurse, artifact
The poisoned garment that killed Heracles, soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus and given to Deianeira as a false love charm.
Chiron
🐉 creatureWisest centaur
Chiron tutored Achilles, Asclepius, Jason — the great teacher.
Hippodamia of the Lapiths
🗡 heroconflict
Lapith princess whose wedding to Pirithous was disrupted when centaurs attempted to abduct her, triggering the Centauromachy.
Lernaean Hydra
🐉 creatureMany-headed water serpent
The Hydra was a gigantic water serpent with multiple heads — when one was severed, two more grew in its place, making it seemingly impossible to kill.
Ixion
🗡 heropunishment
First human murderer of kin, who attempted to seduce Hera and was bound to an eternally spinning wheel of fire.