HeraclesOmphale2.0002_VenetianSchool

HeraclesOmphale2.0002_VenetianSchool

ogcma HeraclesOmphale1.0000_Reid
Classical Sources:
Ion Omphale 15.248
Cratinus the Younger Omphale
Apollodorus Libr. 2.6.3
Diodorus Siculus Biblioteca 4.31.5-8
Nicochares Heracles as the Bride
Ovid Fasti 2.302-58
Ovid Heroides 9
Ovid Ars Amatoria 2.216-28
Hyginus, Fab. 32
Hyginus, Poet. Astron. 2.14

Unknown artist of the Venetian School, "Hercules and Omphale," late 17th-century; sold at auction by Sotheby's July 2012 (artvalue page)

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

Omphale

Omphale holds a position of superior authority over the once-great hero. She's even got his club in her hand. He is spinning thread for her, an entirely domestic task.

The scandalous role-reversal is treated thus in Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2.217-24: "The hero that eluded Juno's spite, / And every monster overcame in fight; / That pass'd so many bloody labours o'er, / And well deserv'd that heav'n whose weight he bore; / Amidst Ionian damsels carding stands, / And grasps the distaff in obedient hands; / In all commands the haughty dame obeys; / And who disdains to act like Hercules?" (Perseus site 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.