Deianeira

Deianeira, daughter of AEneus, king of Caledon, was very beautiful, and had many suitors. She promised to bestow her hand only upon the strongest, and this was Hercules, whose wife she became. Nessus the Centaur, while bearing her over a river, offered her violence, and Hercules shot him with a poisoned arrow. Before dying he gave his shirt stained with poisoned blood to Deianeira as a sure means of reclaiming the love of her husband, should it ever wander. When the occasion arose she gave the shirt to her husband, who put it on. The poison ate into his flesh, and in agony he burnt himself upon Mount iEtna. Deianeira killed herself from grief and remorse.