This painting, by the Flemish artist Theodoor van Thulden (c. 1606-1669), depicts a curious scene involving the storied figure of Hercules (known as Heracles to the Greeks). In particular, the art is inspired by ancient descriptions of the time that the warrior of legend and myth spent with Queen Omphale of Lydia. In the prelude to the tale of Hercules and Omphale, Hercules had wrongfully killed a man named Iphitus and, while consulting with the Oracle of Delphi about how to absolve himself of the killing, he worsened the situation by sacrilegiously trying to steal from the temple. After these unruly antics, the angered gods decided to inflict a humbling punishment on Hercules. According to their sentence, proud Hercules would have to atone by living for three years as a slave of Queen Omphale of Lydia. Hermes, the messenger god, saw to the arrangements and successfully sold Hercules into servitude. Proceeds from the sale were sent to the family of Iphitus, the man that Hercules had killed.
Hercules’ reported behavior during his stay with Omphale varies greatly depending on the storyteller. Some narratives, such as that of Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st and 2nd century), had Hercules acting the way he usually did, slaying monsters and villains, and generally adventuring, 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 emphasized and amplified the dominant role that Omphale had over Hercules during the divinely-imposed punishment. Poking fun at these accounts that painted Hercules 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).
It is this second account, by Lucian, that Theodoor van Thulden re-creates in his painting. His artwork shows Hercules being surrounded and ganged up on by courtly women, as well as a small dog. Queen Omphale stands above him, tugging on the great warrior’s ear. Following the descriptions from Lucian, Theodoor’s Omphale has confiscated the legend’s iconic lion pelt and she wears it proudly as she domineers over Hercules.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Lucian, Selected Dialogues, translated by C. D. N. Costa. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World Classics), 2005, 2006, 2009.
- https://jpsearch.go.jp/item/tfam_art_db-485
- https://www.fujibi.or.jp/collection/artwork/00485/
