Editing Heracles (section)

===Death===

[[File:Muerte de Hércules, por Zurbarán.jpg|thumb|left|''Death of Hercules'' (painting by [[Francisco de Zurbarán]], 1634, Museo del Prado)]]

This is described in [[Sophocles]]'s ''[[Trachiniae]]'' and in [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' Book IX. Having wrestled and defeated [[Achelous]], god of the Acheloos river, Heracles takes [[Deianira]] as his wife. Travelling to [[Tiryns]], a [[centaur]], [[Nessus (mythology)|Nessus]], offers to help Deianira across a fast flowing river while Heracles swims it. However, Nessus is true to the archetype of the mischievous centaur and tries to steal Deianira away while Heracles is still in the water. Angry, Heracles shoots him with his arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the [[Lernaean Hydra]]. Thinking of revenge, Nessus gives Deianira his [[Shirt of Nessus|blood-soaked tunic]] before he dies, telling her it will "excite the love of her husband".<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', IX l.132–33</ref>

Several years later, [[rumor]] tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Heracles. Deianira, remembering Nessus's words, gives Heracles the bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Heracles. However, it is still covered in the Hydra's blood from Heracles's arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Heracles throws [[Lichas]] into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Heracles then uproots several trees and builds a [[Pyre of Herakles|funeral pyre]] on [[Mount Oeta]], which [[Poeas]], father of [[Philoctetes]], lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus's [[apotheosis]], Heracles rises to Olympus as he dies.

No one but Heracles's friend [[Philoctetes]] ([[Poeas]] in some versions) would light his funeral pyre (in an alternative version, it is [[Iolaus]] who lights the pyre). For this action, Philoctetes or Poeas received Heracles's bow and arrows, which were later needed by the Greeks to defeat Troy in the Trojan War.

Philoctetes confronted [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] and shot a [[poisoned arrow]] at him. The Hydra poison subsequently led to the death of Paris. The Trojan War, however, continued until the [[Trojan Horse]] was used to defeat [[Troy]].

According to [[Herodotus]], Heracles lived 900 years before Herodotus's own time (c. 1300 BCE).<ref>[[Herodotus]], ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+2.145 II.145]</ref>