The Trachiniae

Among the seven surviving tragedies of Sophocles, this one steps away from the battlefield and into the household of Heracles. Deianeira waits anxiously for her long-absent husband and learns he is returning with a young captive he means to keep as his lover. Desperate to hold his affection, she sends him a robe soaked in what she believes is a love charm, the blood of the centaur Nessus, whom Heracles once killed. The blood is poison. It burns into the hero's flesh and destroys him, and Deianeira takes her own life once she grasps what she has done. Sophocles builds the whole catastrophe from tenderness and misplaced trust rather than malice, which is what makes it ache. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents Francis Storr's translation.