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YOLE. Iole, daughter of King Eurytus of Oechalia, fell in love with Hercules, and he took her home with him. His wife Dejanira discovered the affair and, hoping to regain his love, smeared Hercules's shirt with the blood of Nessus, the centaur Hercules had killed. The poison ate into his flesh when he put on the shirt, and Hercules knew that he would die. He ordered the pyre built and, climbing onto it, called on his son Hylas to apply the torch (Heroides IX; Met IX.1-272; RR 9192-9202).

Ercules's infidelity to Yole appears in a catalogue of false lovers, HF I.402-403. [Dianira: Ercules]

Yole, the French variant, appears in final rhyming position, HF I.402.

Ovid, Her, ed. and trans. G. Showerman, 118-121; ibid., Met, ed. and trans. F.J. Miller, II: 2-23; RR, ed. E. Langlois, III: 111-112; RR, trans. C. Dahlberg, 166.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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