HeraclesOmphale1.0010

HeraclesOmphale1.0010_Primiticcio

The figurative emasculation of Hercules and the empowerment of Omphale is depicted in the various objects. She wears Heracles' Nemean Lionskin, even to bed. As Ovid tells the story in Fasti 2.305ff., Faunus thinks he is climbing into bed beside Omphale, but finds himself booted out by the once-hero who is sleeping beside her. Here lots of attendants come running to shed some light on the matter.

The scandalous role-reversal is also treated thus in Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2.217-24: "That hero who outlasted his step-mother's putting monsters in his way and gained heaven, which he earlier held on his own shoulders; people believe that he joined Ionian girls, that he grasped the distaff and carded slubby wool. / The hero of Tiryns obeyed the command of his mistress! Come, consider whether you wouldn't also endure what Heracles endured!" (RTM trans.)