Women of Trachis

Women of Trachis (also known as *The Trachiniae*) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles, likely performed sometime between 450 and 425 BC. Critics and scholars have long disagreed on its exact date, and the play is often regarded as less polished than Sophocles’ other surviving works.

The plot opens with Deianeira, Heracles’ wife, recalling her difficult early life and the challenges of her marriage. Before Heracles, the river god Achelous had courted her, but with Zeus’s help, Heracles defeated him and took her as his wife. Now, Heracles is frequently absent, and she has not heard from him in fifteen months. Worried about prophecies that he will die if he stays where he is, she sends their son Hyllus to find him. Soon after, a messenger arrives saying Heracles has won a battle and is making offerings at Cape Cenaeum before returning to Trachis, though his homecoming has been delayed by crowds eager to hear of his victories.

Heracles’ herald, Lichas, then arrives with a group of captives. He falsely tells Deianeira that Heracles attacked the city of Oechalia because its king, Eurytus, had tried to enslave him. In truth, Heracles destroyed the city to obtain Iole, Eurytus’s daughter, after the king refused to let him take her as a secret lover. Deianeira learns the truth from another messenger and confronts Lichas, who confirms it.

Distraught over her husband’s infatuation with a younger woman, Deianeira decides to use a love charm. Years earlier, the centaur Nessus had tried to assault her while carrying her across the River Evenus. Heracles shot Nessus with an arrow, and as he died, Nessus told Deianeira that his blood—mixed with the Hydra’s poison from the arrow—would prevent Heracles from loving anyone more than her, if she followed his instructions. Now, she dyes a robe with the blood and sends it to Heracles via Lichas, insisting no one else wear it and that it be kept in darkness until he puts it on.

After sending the gift, Deianeira grows uneasy. She tests leftover material in sunlight, and it reacts like boiling acid. Realizing Nessus tricked her—the “charm” was actually poison meant to kill Heracles—she is horrified. Hyllus returns and reports that his father, poisoned by the robe, is dying in agony. In his pain and rage, Heracles killed Lichas by smashing his skull. Overcome with shame and her son’s harsh accusations, Deianeira takes her own life. Hyllus later learns she acted without malice. Heracles, carried home in torment, initially believes his wife tried to murder him, but Hyllus explains the truth. Heracles then understands that a prophecy has been fulfilled: he would be killed by someone already dead—Nessus.

In unbearable pain, Heracles begs to be killed, lamenting that his weakness makes him like a woman. He forces Hyllus to promise two things: to take him to Zeus’s highest peak and burn him alive on a pillar, and to marry Iole. Heracles is then carried offstage to his death.

The play’s date is unknown, with scholars like T.F. Hoey arguing for an early date around 450 BC. Evidence for an early date includes the play’s less developed dramatic form, which suggests a younger Sophocles. The plot also resembles a story in Bacchylides XVI, but differs significantly from earlier versions; Hoey and others think Sophocles’ version likely influenced Bacchylides, not the reverse. Further evidence comes from the character of Deianeira, who is softer and more feminine than earlier portrayals—unlike Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s *Oresteia* (produced in 458 BC), who deliberately kills her husband. Some scholars believe Sophocles’ Deianeira was meant as a commentary on Aeschylus’s Clytemnestra, which would place *Women of Trachis* reasonably close to that date.