HeraclesOmphale2.0103_AnonymousGermans

Anonymous German artist, "Hercules and Ompahle," (17th Century), oil on canvas, 113 x 98 cm; The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. ГЭ-8746; acquired 1931, handed over by the Antikvariat All-Union Association, formerly in the the Gatchina Palace Museum Collection.

The queen of Lydia, Omphale, has purchased Hercules, whose thralldom to her will expiate his murder of Iole's brother Iphitus. In this picture by an anonymous German artist Omphale has fully acquired the hero's chief phallic attributes, his club and his Nemean Lion hide. In exchange she offers Heracles the symbolic implement for women's work, the distaff. And from his own and the attendant's body language the swap seems to be going badly. The moment of the exchange seems to have been preceeded by an erotic encounter.