Basically, he came back home to be poisoned by his jealous wife, who in fact thought that by administrating that poison she would rather make him love her more. The poison made him suffer enormously so he asked to be put on a pyre and to be burned. Accordingly, he was apotheosized and joined the Olympians in Heaven. He was wedded to Hebe (the Goddess of youth). well he actually couldent be poisend by his wife because he killed her.
He would lately reappear on earth as a god. For instance, he came back to urge Philoctetes to rejoin the Achaean Army besieging Troy; as it was decreed that the Trojan war could not be won without him and the bow of Hercules (that was given to him by the hero himself as a recompense for having lit the pyre when all shrinked from the task).
Sources: Sophocles's plays: ''Women of Trachis'' for an account of Hercules's death
"Philoctetes" for the appearance of Hercules as a deity
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