SceneFiend library
Trachiniae
By Sophocles - Stage play
Roles
- Deianeira - Adult (36-50), Senior (>50), Female
About this piece
Deianeira tells the Chorus she will try a love charm to keep her husband
Summary
The play deals with Deianeira's jealousy for her Heracles', her husband, attraction for a younger woman, Iole. Iole is a young woman that Heracles brings back to Trachis as a slave after having won a battle. Determined to keep her husband, Deianeria tries a love charm on Heracles but accidentally injuring him. Realizing what she has done, she kills herself. Heracles, being in agony, asks to be killed by being burned alive. In this monologue Deianeira addresses the Chorus of Trachinian maidens. She laments the fact that Heracles is now attracted to a younger and beautiful woman. She has a plan to keep her husband: in one episode that happened years before, she was being carried by a centaur across a river. The centaur, Nessus, made a pass on her and he was killed by Heracles. Before dying, Nessus told her that his blood could be used by her as a love charm to make her husband love her and no one else. Therefore she decides to smear Nessus' blood on a robe that she will give as a gift to her husband.
Tone
Use cases
Library metadata only. SceneFiend never includes script text here - pick up the published version to rehearse.