This painting, by the German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472-1553), was inspired by the curious myth of Heracles (known as Hercules to the Romans) and Queen Omphale of Lydia. In the prelude to the tale of Hercules and Omphale, Heracles had wrongfully killed a man named Iphitus and, while consulting with the Oracle of Delphi about this killing, he worsened the situation by sacrilegiously trying to steal from the temple. After these antics, the angry gods and their messengers decided to inflict on Heracles a humbling punishment—for him to atone, the Greek hero would have to live for three years as a slave. Hermes, the messenger god, saw to the arrangements, eventually selling Heracles to Queen Omphale of Lydia. The proceeds of the sale were sent to the family of Iphitus, the man that Heracles had killed.
How Heracles acted during his stay with Omphale differed widely depending on the storyteller. Some narratives, such as that of Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st and 2nd century), had Heracles behaving the way he usually did, with him supposedly slaying monsters and villains when he was not working the queen’s fields. On this, Apollodorus wrote, “While serving Omphale as a slave, Heracles captured and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus, and at Aulis he killed Syleus—who compelled strangers to dig [in his vineyard]—and also his daughter, Xenodice, and burned his vines to their roots” (Apollodorus, Library, 2.6.3). Other storytellers amplified the domination Omphale had over Heracles during the divinely-imposed punishment. Poking fun at these accounts that painted Heracles in an overly-subservient manner, the satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-180) wrote:
“[If you] season your history unreasonably with fictions and eulogies and other sorts of flattery, you’ll very soon make it look like Heracles in Lydia. You must have seen him portrayed as a slave to Omphale, dressed in a most extraordinary fashion, while she is wearing his lion’s skin and holding his club. She is Heracles, you see, and he is clad in saffron and purple, carding wool and getting slapped with Omphale’s sandal. It’s a truly shameful sight: his clothes don’t fit and fall off him, and a god’s masculinity has become shockingly effeminate” (Lucian, How to Write History, section 10).
Such, then, are the ancient myths that inspired the painting. Lucas Cranach’s artwork obviously follows the second variation of the Omphale myth, as Heracles is shown being dressed up and given a makeover by women in Omphale’s household. The artist did, however, decide to opt out of depicting Omphale in Heracles’ iconic equipment. Yet, a fashionable coat can be seen on one of the women, which could arguably play the role of the lion pelt.
Sources:
- Lucian, Selected Dialogues, translated by C. D. N. Costa. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World Classics), 2005, 2006, 2009.
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- https://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/en/catalog/443377
