In this pitiable condition he
was conveyed to Trachin, where Deianeira, on beholding the terrible suffering
of which she was the innocent cause, was overcome with grief and remorse, and
hanged herself in despair. The dying hero called his son Hyllus to his side,
and desired him to make Iole his wife, and then ordering his followers to erect
a funeral pyre, he mounted it and implored the by-standers to set fire to it,
and thus in mercy to terminate his insufferable torments. But no one had the
courage to obey him, until at last his friend and companion Philoctetes,
yielding to his piteous appeal, lighted the pile, and received in return the
bow and arrows of the hero.
Soon flames on flames ascended,
and amidst vivid flashes of lightning, accompanied by awful peals of thunder,
Pallas-Athene descended in a cloud, and bore her favourite hero in a chariot to
Olympus.
Heracles became admitted among
the immortals; and Hera, in token of her reconciliation, bestowed upon him the
hand of her beautiful daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth.