HeraclesOmphale1.0028

HeraclesOmphale1.0028_VouetDorigny

OGCMA, "Heracles and Omphale"

Michel Dorigny (fl. 1643), copper engraving of original (lost) painting by Simon Vouet (1590-1649), "Hercules and Omphale," [S. Vouet pinxit; cum provileg(io) Regis; M. Dorigny sc()ibat.) The copper engraving is held in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

The image at right is from the database of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen zu Dresden (skd.online)

The queen of Lydia, Omphale, has purchased Heracles, whose thralldom to her will expiate his murder of Iole's brother Iphitus.

The caption reads " Te clavam mutare colo cum cerneret, Heros, / Haec matri referam ludicra, dixit Amor."
(When he saw that you, our hero, were trading your club for the distaff, Amor said, "I shall put the foolishness upon this mother."

The scandalous role-reversal is treated thus in Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2.217-24: "The hero who eluded Juno's wrath, / And vanquished every monster, / who endured so many bloody labors, / And earned that heaven whose weight he once bore; / Amidst Ionian girls cards wool, / And grabs the distaff in obedient hands; / In all commands his haughty mistress he obeys; / Nowadays, who disdains to act like Hercules?" — RTM trans

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.