Shirt of Nessus
conceptThe poisoned garment that killed Heracles, soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus and given to Deianeira as a false love charm.
The Myth
The shirt of Nessus originated when the centaur Nessus attempted to assault Deianeira while carrying her across the river Evenus. Heracles shot Nessus with an arrow poisoned with the blood of the Lernaean Hydra. As Nessus lay dying, he whispered to Deianeira that his blood-soaked tunic would serve as a love charm to keep Heracles faithful. Years later, when Deianeira learned that Heracles had taken Iole as a concubine after sacking Oechalia, she sent him the shirt. When Heracles donned it for a sacrifice to Zeus at Cape Cenaeum, the Hydra's poison activated, burning his flesh. Unable to tear the garment away, Heracles built his own funeral pyre on Mount Oeta. Philoctetes lit the pyre, and Zeus raised Heracles to Olympus, where he married Hebe.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The phrase "shirt of Nessus" is still used in English to describe a source of misfortune that cannot be escaped once accepted. When Mary Shelley described a ruinous obligation, she called it a "Nessus shirt." Medically, the agonising burning Heracles experienced matches descriptions of severe allergic contact dermatitis — some classicists believe the myth encodes ancient knowledge of chemical skin burns.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Cape Sounion
placeThe dramatic headland at the southern tip of Attica crowned by the Temple of Poseidon, where Aegeus...
Deianeira
heroThe wife of Heracles whose love inadvertently killed the greatest hero in Greek mythology when she...
Hebe
godHebe served nectar to the gods and married Heracles.
Hera
godQueen of the Olympian gods and goddess of marriage. Known for her jealous rages against Zeus's...
Hera Teleia
godAn epithet of Hera as goddess of marriage and its fulfilment, worshipped as the divine model of the...
Heracles
heroThe greatest hero of Greek mythology, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Famous for his...
Heracles (Labours)
heroHeracles performed twelve seemingly impossible labours as penance for killing his family in a...
Hydra
creatureA monstrous water serpent with multiple heads that grew two more whenever one was cut off. Slaying...
Lerna
placeLerna was a marshy region near Argos, famed as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra and believed to...
Lernaean Hydra
creatureThe Hydra was a gigantic water serpent with multiple heads — when one was severed, two more grew in...
Mount Olympus (Sacred)
placeThe highest mountain in Greece and mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods, whose...
Mount Parnassus
placeMount Parnassus was the mountain above Delphi sacred to Apollo and the Muses — the symbolic home of...