upon his flesh, and the tunic clung to his sides, at every joint,

close-glued, as if by a craftsman's hand; there came a biting pain
that racked his bones; and then the venom, as of some deadly, cruel

viper, began to devour him.
Thereupon he shouted for the unhappy Lichas,- in no wise to

blame for thy crime,- asking what treason had moved him to bring
that robe; but he, all-unknowing, hapless one, said that he had

brought the gift from thee alone, as it had been sent. When his master
heard it, as a piercing spasm clutched his lungs, he caught him by the

foot, where the ankle turns in the socket, and hurled him at a
surf-beaten rock in the sea; and he made the white brain to ooze

from the hair, as the skull was dashed to splinters, and blood
scattered therewith.

But all the people lifted up a cry of awe-struck grief, seeing
that one was frenzied, and the other slain; and no one dared to come

before the man. For the pain dragged him to earth, or made him leap
into the air, with yells and shrieks, till the cliffs rang around,

steep headlands of Locris, and Euboean capes.
But when he was spent with oft throwing himself on the ground in

his anguish, and oft making loud lament,- cursing his fatal marriage
with thee, the vile one, and his alliance with Oeneus,- saying how

he had found in it the ruin of his life,- then from out of the
shrouding altar-smoke, he lifted up his wildly-rolling eyes, and saw

me in the great crowd, weeping. He turned his gaze on me, and called
me: 'O son, draw near; do not fly from my trouble, even though thou

must share my death. Come, bear me forth, and set me, if thou canst,
in a place where no man shall see me; or, if thy pity forbids that, at

least convey me with all speed out of this land, and let me not die
where I am.'

That command sufficed; we laid him in mid-ship, and brought
him-but hardly brought him- to this shore, moaning in his torments.

And ye shall presently behold him, alive, or lately dead.
Such, mother, are the designs and deeds against my sire whereof

thou hast been found guilty. May avenging justice and the Erinys visit
thee for them! Yes, if it be right, that is my prayer: and right it

is,- for I have seen thee trample on the right, by slaying the noblest
man in all the world, whose like thou shalt see nevermore!

(DEIANEIRA moves towards the house.)
LEADER (to DEIANEIRA)

Why dost thou depart in silence? Knowest thou not that such
silence pleads for thine accuser?

(DEIANEIRA goes in the house.)
HYLLUS

Let her depart. A fair wind speed her far from my sight! Why
should the name of mother bring her a semblance of respect, when she

is all unlike a mother in her deeds? No, let her go,- farewell to her;
and may such joy as she gives my sire become her own!

(Exit HYLLUS, into the house.)
CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1
See, maidens, how suddenly the divine word of the old prophecy

hath come upon us, which said that, when the twelfth year should
have run through its full tale of months, it should end the series

of toils for the true-born son of Zeus! And that promise is wafted
surely to its fulfilment. For how shall he who beholds not the light

have toilsome servitude any more beyond the grave?
antistrophe 1

If a cloud of death is around him, and the doom wrought by the
Centaur's craft is stinging his sides, where cleaves the venom which

Thanatos begat and the gleaming serpent nourished, how can he look
upon tomorrow's sun,- when that appalling Hydra-shape holds him in its

grip, and those murderous goads, prepared by the wily words of
black-haired Nessus, have started into fury, vexing him with

tumultuous pain?
strophe 2

Of such things this hapless lady had no foreboding; but she saw
great mischiefswiftly coming on her home from the new marriage. Her

own hand applied the remedy; but for the issues of a stranger's
counsel, given at a fatal meeting,- for these, I ween, she makes

despairing lament, shedding the tender dew of plenteous tears. And the
coming fate foreshadows a great misfortune, contrived by guile.

antistrophe 2
Our streaming tears break forth: alas, a plague is upon him more

piteous than any suffering that foemen ever brought upon that glorious
hero.

Ah, thou dark steel of the spear foremost in battle, by whose
might yonder bride was lately borne so swiftly from Oechalia's

heights! But the Cyprian goddess, ministering in silence, hath been
plainly proved the doer of these deeds.

LEADER OF ONE SEMI-CHORUS
Is it fancy, or do I hear some cry of grief just passing through

the house? What is this?
LEADER OF OTHER SEMI-CHORUS

No uncertain sound, but a wail of anguish from within: the house
hath some new trouble.

LEADER OF WHOLE CHORUS
And mark how sadly, with what a cloud upon her brow, that aged

woman approaches, to give us tidings.
(Enter NURSE, from the house.)

NURSE
Ah, my daughters, great, indeed, were the sorrows that we were

to reap from the gift sent to Heracles!
LEADER

Aged woman, what new mischance hast thou to tell?
NURSE

Deianeira hath departed on the last of all her journeys,
departed without stirring foot.

LEADER
Thou speakest not of death?

NURSE
My tale is told.

LEADER
Dead, hapless one?

NURSE
Again thou hearest it.

CHORUS
Hapless, lost one! Say, what was the manner of her death?

NURSE
Oh, a cruel deed was there!

CHORUS
Speak, woman, how hath she met her doom?

NURSE
By her own hand hath she died.

CHORUS
What fury, what pangs of frenzy have cut her off by the edge of

a dire weapon? How contrived she this death, following death,- all
wrought by her alone?

NURSE
By the stroke of the sword that makes sorrow.

CHORUS
Sawest thou that violent deed, poor helpless one?

NURSE
I saw it; yea, I was standing near.

CHORUS
Whence came it? How was it done? Oh, speak