Dējănīra

, a daughter of Œneus king of Ætolia. Her beauty procured her many admirers, and her father promised to give her in marriage to him only who proved to be the strongest of all his competitors. Hercules obtained the prize, and married Dejanira, by whom he had three children, the most known of whom is Hyllus. As Dejanira was once travelling with her husband, they were stopped by the swollen streams of the Evenus, and the centaur Ne us offered Hercules to convey her safe to the opposite shore. The hero consented; but no sooner had Ne us gained the bank, than he attempted to offer violence to Dejanira, and to carry her away in the sight of her husband. Hercules, upon this, aimed from the other shore a poisoned arrow at the seducer, and mortally wounded him. Ne us, as he expired, wished to avenge his death upon his murderer; and he gave Dejanira his tunic, which was covered with blood, poisoned and infected by the arrow, observing that it had the power of reclaiming a husband from unlawful loves. Dejanira accepted the present; and when Hercules proved faithle to her bed, she sent him the centaur’s tunic, which instantly caused his death. See: Hercules . Dejanira was so disconsolate at the death of her husband, which she had ignorantly occasioned, that she destroyed herself. Ovid , Metamorphoses , bks. 8 & 9.— Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Seneca , Hercules .— Hyginus , fable 34.