HeraclesOmphaleANCIENT_PompeiiLucretius

"Hercules and Omphale", Pompeiian fresco, 1st century CE, 162 x 203.2 cm, extracted from House of M. Lucretius, triclinium 16, east wall, central section; Museo Archeological Nationale di Napoli, inv. 8992.

Compare to the earlier Pompeian fresco, HeraclesOmphaleANCIENT_Pompeii, not discussed by Enenkel (infr.).

The queen of Lydia, Omphale, has purchased Hercules, whose thralldom to her will expiate his murder of Iole's brother Iphitus. Omphale bears the hero's club and the trophy-hide of the Nemean Lion that had protected and defined the hero throughout his Labors; she now owns them and him. In this depiction, Hercules is a participant in the drunken revelry of the kommos, not the manufacture of wool, as he frequently pursued in Omphale's thrall. The mood seems likely to soon overtake him and put him even more deeply under the queen's control.

Discussed by K.A. Enenkel (2025), Theatre of Sexual Attraction and Psychological Destruction: the myth of Hercules and Ompahle in the visual arts, 1500-1800 (Boston and Leiden: Brill), 239, 246-47.

The image at right was derived from the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World which cites copyright of the MANN. Permission for this site has been applied for.