[4] However, there are scholars who defend the play as authentic (albeit hastily written),[3] or argue that a later hand reworked an incomplete fragment.

[6] The first scene, with the chorus following, is at Euboea, where Hercules, about to offer sacrifices on the promontory of Cenaeum, records his wishes for a place in the heavens, which he recounts and boasts he has deserved.

Iole joining in with the Chorus of Oechalians, bewails the destruction of her country, the slaughter of her father and kinsfolk and lastly, her own position of servitude.

The Chorus of Aetolian women bewail the lot of Deianira, they express their dislike of ambition, avarice, luxury and other frivolous pursuits of mankind, and praise the inferior conditions of life.

[7] Deianira repents of her plan when she is acquainted with what danger the poison has brought about, and the calamity, as predicted from its exposure to the sun, has now taken place.

[7] Hercules complains about suffering undeservedly, and that he should be doomed to die an ignominious death, especially one arising out of a woman's treachery.

Hercules, having been raised to the companionship of the gods, consoles his grieving mother, being introduced into this scene by being lowered from the heavens above.