Heracles and the Centaur via Wikimedia Commons
The most complete account of the death of Hercules (also called Heracles) appears in a play by the ancient Greek dramatist, Sophocles. Hercules was presented with a cloak by his beautiful wife, Deianira. She had smeared it with a magic balm, which she had been told would make him love her forever. But she’d gotten the balm from a vengeful centaur, and the balm was actually a caustic poison. When Hercules put on the cloak, his body burned with pain and his skin began to corrode.
Sophocles’ graphic account of Hercules’ death shares remarkable similarities to the suffering of a smallpox victim. Sophocles wrote the play in 430 BC, when a smallpox epidemic was raging in Athens.
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