HeraclesOmphale2.0102

HeraclesOmphale2.0102_Tischbein

OGCMA, s.v. "Heracles and Omphale"
Wikimedia Commons

Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1722-1789), "Hercules and Omphale", oil on canvas, 1754, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, acc. no. 1816/872. — Der Spiegel 48/2005, p. 172.

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

Painting of Omphale, with Hercules at her side, spinning wool while a woman adjusts his headdress.

Omphale seems to be actively disrobing, divesting herself of the Nemean Lion's skin, and fills the center of this erotically charged moment. Hercules hardly knows what to do with the implements of spinning. A jocund attendant is dolling him up with a hairbow. Two erotes play, one with our attention and the other with the hero's mighty club the way little boys sometimes do. Hercules' cross-legged pose seems odd; Omphale's is familiar from Boucher (1731-ish).

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.