As I said,
I’m not going to go through all of Herc’s labors and adventures . . . yet. I
might come back to them at a later date, but for now I want to skip all the way
to the end. Herc, somewhere along his many labors, finds the time to marry Deianira—third
time’s the charm, right? (wrong).
At one point, she’s trying to cross
a river. Nessus, the river guardian, offers to help her cross, and then attempts
to rape her. I know, I know; it’s a Greek story. At least it’s only an attempt,
this time. Herc, seeing this from far away—why isn’t he with her?—shoots Nessus
with a poisoned arrow.
However, as he lay dying, Nessus
pulls a little serpent from the Garden of Eden on Deianira. He tells her that to
stop Herc from cheating on her—he kind of inherited that from dear old dad—she
should gather up Nessus’ blood and soak it into a shirt. He wouldn’t lie to get
revenge or anything, right? It’s not like he’s dying to get back at—never mind.
She buys into it, and does this. The
second Herc puts on the shirt, he catches fire. Whatever godly abilities he
has, they don’t include fireproof flesh. And when he tried to take off the
shirt, his flesh went with it. Yowch!
Herc is a goner. Yup. No more
Hercules. He’s dead, Jim.
But his story isn’t over (just like
comic books).
The gods make him into a god. He’s
supposed to ascend as one of the Olympians, but there can only be 12 of those.
And rather than take the place of another, Herc steps aside to simply be the
gatekeeper of Olympus.
So, why Herc? Why indeed. Stay
tuned.