Hercules and Omphale at The Fine Art Museum in Brussels, Belgium

myminifactory

In one of many ancient Greek variations on the theme of punishment for "unintentional" murder, Heracles, a great hero known as Hercules by the Romans, was ordered by the Delphic Oracle Xenoclea to serve Omphale as a slave for a period of one year. This compensation was meant to be paid to Eurytus, who refused it. The theme is inherently a comedic reversal of traditional sex roles and is not fully depicted in any surviving text from Classical Greece. Plutarch mentions lost comedies by Kratinos and Eupolis that referenced the contemporary situation with Aspasia in Pericles' household and Sophocles' portrayal in The Trachiniae, where it was considered shameful for Heracles to serve an Oriental woman in this manner. However, there are many late Hellenistic and Roman references in texts and art to Heracles being forced to do women's work and even wear women's clothing while Omphale and her maidens spun wool. Omphale even wore the skin of the Nemean Lion and carried Heracles' olive-wood club. Unfortunately, no complete early account survives to supplement the later vase paintings. During his stay in Lydia, Heracles captured the city of the Itones and enslaved them, killed Syleus who forced passersby to hoe his vineyard, and captured the Cercopes. He buried the body of Icarus and participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt and the Argonautica. After some time, Omphale freed Heracles and took him as her husband. They traveled to the grove of Bacchus and planned to celebrate the rites of Bacchus at dawn. Hercules slept alone in a bed covered with Omphale's clothes. The Roman god Faunus attempted to take advantage of Omphale and snuck naked into Hercules' bed, who then threw Faunus to the floor and laughed.