Nessus

Shirt of Nessus. A source of misfortune from which there is no escape; a fatal present; anything that wounds the susceptibilities. Thus Renan has “the Nessus-shirt of ridicule.” Herculēs ordered Nessus (the centaur) to carry his wife Dejaniʹra across a river. The centaur ill-treated the woman, and Hercules shot him with a poisoned arrow. Nessus, in revenge, gave Dejaniʹra his tunic, saying to whomsoever she gave it would love her exclusively. Dejaniʹra gave it to her husband, who was devoured by poison as soon as he put it on; but, after enduring agony, the hero threw himself on a funeral pile, and was consumed. (See Harmonia’s Robe.)