The Women Of Trachis, 2

The messenger pulls Deianira aside to give her additional information.  It seems Lichas wasn't being entirely truthful with his story about Heracles sacking the city for revenge, nor about the identity of the particularly pretty girl.  Lichas had been telling others in the village-- and the messenger overheard him-- that Heracles had sacked the city solely out of love for the girl, Iole.  Deianira feels betrayed.  The Chorus is pissed at Lichas.  The messenger expects a tip again.

Deianira confronts Lichas on his way out again.  He's not budging from his story, and can't figure out why anyone in the house wouldn't believe him.  I mean, geez!  [Almost an exact quote.]  But Deianira coaxes it out of him, partly by saying she knows all about Heracles's conquests of other women, and partly by playing on Lichas's sense of his own honor being at stake.  The Chorus joins in the coaxing.  "Obey her.  What she says is good.  You will have no cause to complain later, and you will gain our thanks."  [Who is the Chorus again?  What might they mean by that?]

Lichas spills it.  The whole sacking of the city was a feint to get at Iole.  The Chorus, now apparently omniscient, describe the battle between Heracles and Achelous over Iole, with Cypris the goddess of love refereeing.  Heracles won.

Deianira re-emerges with her last desperate plan.  She cannot have a younger consort within her own household, feeling as if she-- Heracles's only wife!-- has been replaced at home.  Men!  Luckily, when she was a girl, she was carried by [the centaur] Nessus across a river on her way to meet Heracles for the first time.  He molested her on the way over.  Zeus Heracles killed him for it.  And as a penance Nessus offered her the blood from his wound, which would at all times entice Heracles to her.  Using it for the first time, she has now dipped a cloak in this blood, and sends Lichas out with it to give to Heracles.  When he puts it on, her place in the household will be secure again.

The Chorus is excited for Heracles's return once again.

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This story is getting more and more ridiculous.  Although it seems the parts that were ridiculous last time turned out to be a fabrication, so who knows anymore.  Sexual politics has emerged as a theme in a big way, and that might be new among everything I've read so far.

It occured to me while reading this that I have paid no attention whatsoever to the lyrical structure of these plays.  As in, I haven't looked for a poetical meter at all.  So I made a conscious effort to pay attention to that, and simply couldn't see it at all.  I suck.  Or the translator sucks.

Edit, 2/16: Apparently, I badly misread the details in the story about Nessus yesterday.  The edited details above are hugely important for the following action.