[5][6] She was the wife of Heracles and, in late Classical accounts, his unwitting murderer, killing him with the poisoned Shirt of Nessus.

Her other siblings were Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, Agelaus (or Ageleus), Thyreus (or Phereus or Pheres), Gorge, Eurymede and Melanippe.

As he lay dying, Nessus persuaded Deianira to take a sample of his blood, claiming that, when mixed with his semen, it would create a love potion that would ensure Heracles would never again be unfaithful.

[19] When Heracles fell in love with the younger and more beautiful Iole, Deianira, fearing that she would lose her husband, decided to use the potion.

[20] She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62.