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Omphale
Queen of Lydia
Member of the Royal House of Lydia
In an ancient fresco from the home of the Prince of Montenegro at Pompeii, a drunken, cross-dressing Heracles is on the ground as Omphale and maidservants look on from above.
AbodeLydia
Genealogy
ParentsIardanus (or Iardanes)
ConsortTmolus, Heracles
ChildrenSons by Heracles

In Greek mythology, Omphale (/ˈɒmfəˌliː/; Ancient Greek: Ὀμφάλη, romanized: Omphale, lit. 'navel') was princess of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor. Diodorus Siculus provides the first appearance of the Omphale theme in literature, though Aeschylus was aware of the episode.[1] The Greeks did not recognize her as a goddess: the undisputed etymological connection with omphalos, the world-navel, has never been made clear.[2] In her best-known myth, she is the mistress of the hero Heracles during a year of required servitude, a scenario that, according to some,[3] offered writers and artists opportunities to explore sexual roles and erotic themes.

Family

[edit]

According to Diodorus Siculus, Omphale was the daughter of Iardanus[4] while according to the mythographer Apollodorus, the name of her father was Iardanes, and she was the wife of Tmolus, a king of Lydia from whom she inherited his throne.[5]

Mythology

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Heracles and Omphale

[edit]
Heracles and Omphale, each wearing the other’s clothing, Roman fresco tondo, Pompeian Fourth Style (45-79 AD), Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy

The great hero Heracles, whom the Romans identified as Hercules,"inadvertently" murdered Iphitus. In one of many Greek variations on the theme the penalty was, by the command of the Delphic Oracle Xenoclea, that he be remanded as a slave to Omphale for the period of a year,[6] the compensation to be paid to Eurytus, who refused it. (According to Diodorus, Iphitus' sons accepted it.[7])

The theme, inherently a comic inversion of sexual roles,[8] is not fully illustrated in any surviving text from Classical Greece. Plutarch, in his life of Pericles, 24, mentions lost comedies of Kratinos and Eupolis, which alluded to the contemporary capacity of Aspasia in the household of Pericles,[9] and to Sophocles in The Trachiniae [10] it was shameful for Heracles to serve an Oriental woman in this fashion,[11] but 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 and hold a basket of wool while Omphale and her maidens did their spinning.[12][13] Omphale even wore the skin of the Nemean Lion and carried Heracles' olive-wood club. No full early account survives to supplement the later vase-paintings.

Hercules and Omphale, detail of a Roman mosaic from Llíria (Spain), third century.

But it was also during his stay in Lydia that Heracles captured the city of the Itones and enslaved them, killed Syleus who forced passersby to hoe his vineyard, and then captured the Cercopes.

After some time, Omphale freed Heracles and took him as her husband. They travelled to the grove of Dionysus and planned to celebrate the rites of Dionysus at dawn. Heracles slept alone in a bed covered with the clothes of Omphale. The Greek god Pan hoped to have his way with Omphale and crept naked into the bed of Heracles who threw Pan to the floor and laughed.[14][15]

Sons of Heracles in Lydia

[edit]
Omphale, by Constantin Dausch

Diodorus Siculus (4.31.8) and Ovid in his Heroides (9.54) mention a son named Lamos. But Bibliotheca (2.7.8) gives the name of the son of Heracles and Omphale as Agelaus, whom the family of Croesus was descended from.

Pausanias (2.21.3) gives yet another name, mentioning Tyrsenus, son of Heracles by "the Lydian woman", by whom Pausanias presumably means Omphale. This Tyrsenus supposedly first invented the trumpet, and Tyrsenus' son Hegeleus taught the Dorians with Temenus how to play the trumpet and first gave to Athena the surname Trumpet.

The name Tyrsenus appears elsewhere as a variant of Tyrrhenus, whom many accounts bring from Lydia to settle the Tyrsenoi/ Tyrrhenians/ Etruscans in Italy. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.28.1) cites a tradition that the supposed founder of the Etruscan settlements was Tyrrhenus, the son of Heracles by Omphale the Lydian, who drove the Pelasgians out of Italy from the cities north of the Tiber river. Dionysius gives this as an alternate to other versions of Tyrrhenus' ancestry.

Herodotus (1.7) refers to a Heraclid dynasty of kings who ruled Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale, writing, "The Heraclids, descended from Heracles and the slave-girl of Iardanus...." Omphale as slave-girl seems odd. However, Diodorus Siculus relates that when Heracles was still Omphale's slave, before Omphale (daughter of Iardanus) set Heracles free and married him, Heracles fathered a son, Cleodaeus, on a slave-woman. This fits, though in Herodotus the son of Heracles and the slave-girl of Iardanus is named Alcaeus.

Terracotta figurine of Omphale, Paphos Archaeological Museum, Cyprus.

But according to the historian Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) as cited by Nicolaus of Damascus, the Heraclid dynasty of Lydia traced their descent to a son of Heracles and Omphale named Tylon, and were called Tylonidai. It is known from coins that this Tylon was a native Anatolian god equated with the Greek Heracles [citation needed].

Herodotus asserts that the first of the Heraclids to reign in Sardis was Agron, the son of Ninus, son of Belus, son of Alcaeus, son of Heracles.[16] Later writers know a Ninus who is the primordial king of Assyria, and they often call this Ninus son of Belus. Their Ninus is the legendary founder and eponym of the city of Ninus, referring to Ninevah, while Belus, though sometimes treated as a human, is identified with the god Bel.

An earlier genealogy may have made Agron, as a legendary first king of an ancient dynasty, to be a son of the mythical Ninus, son of Belus, and stopped at that point. In the genealogy given by Herodotus, someone may have grafted the tradition of a Lydian son of Heracles at the top end of it, so that Ninus and Belus in the list now become descendants of Heracles, who just happen to bear the same names as the more famous Ninus and Belus.

That, at least, is the interpretation of later chronologists who also ignored Herodotus' statement that Agron was the first to be a king, and included Alcaeus, Belus, and Ninus in their List of kings of Lydia.

As to how Agron gained the kingdom from the older dynasty descended from Lydus son of Atys, Herodotus only says that the Heraclids, "having been entrusted by these princes with the management of affairs, obtained the kingdom by an oracle."

Strabo (5.2.2) makes Atys father of Lydus, and Tyrrhenus to be one of the descendants of Heracles and Omphale. But all other accounts place Atys, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus brother of Lydus among the pre-Heraclid kings of Lydia.

In art

[edit]
Hercules and Omphale's maids, by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Hercules at the feet of Omphale by Édouard Joseph Dantan
  • Omphale is an opera by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 10 November 1701.
  • One of the most famous symphonic poems in a mythological series composed by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in the 1870s is titled Le Rouet d'Omphale ("The Spinning Wheel of Omphale") the rouet being a spinning wheel that the queen and her maidens used—in this version of the myth, it was Delphic Apollo who condemned the hero to serve the Lydian queen disguised as a woman. In the twentieth century, during the "Golden Age of Radio", this symphonic poem gained wider public exposure when it was used as the theme music for The Shadow.
  • Hercules and Omphale or The Power of Love is a "classical extravaganza" which premiered at Royal St. James's Theatre in London on 26 December 1864. Written by William Brough, with music composed and arranged by Wallerstein, the piece was directed by Charles Matthews. Hercules was played en travesti by Charlotte Saunders (possibly Charlotte Cushman Saunders), with a Miss Herbert as Omphale.[17][18]
  • Hercules and Omphale is the subject of several paintings by the sixteenth-century German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder. They feature Hercules being dressed up as a woman by Omphale and her maids. Hercules is also spinning wool.
  • Hercules at the feet of Omphale is a painting by the French nineteenth-century painter Édouard Joseph Dantan. Hercules is depicted sitting at the feet of Omphale, spinning wool.
  • "Hercule et Omphale" is a short, sexually explicit poem by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire appearing in the erotic (and for many years forbidden) novel Les onze mille verges (The Eleven Thousand Penises).[19]
  • In August Strindberg's The Father (1887), the protagonist, Captain Adolf, likens his wife's mistreatment of him to Omphale's behavior toward Heracles. "Omphale!" He screams. "It's Queen Omphale herself! Now you play with Hercules' club while he spins your wool!"

In cinema

[edit]

Queen Omphale is a main character of Hercules Unchained, the sequel of Hercules (1958). Her guards capture males who drink from a fountain of forgetfulness one by one. She makes him her love slave, calls him the King, and then has him killed by her guards when they come with the next man. In Hercules's quest to mediate the power struggle between Polynices and Eteocles, he drinks from the fountain and becomes captive to Omphale. His comrade, Ulysses (Odysseus), pretends to be deaf and mute in order to remain imprisoned on the island and stay in contact with Hercules, as opposed to being killed. He sneaks out of his cell one night to find a cave filled with preserved statues of Omphale's previous love slaves. He continues to feed Hercules regular water, which eventually leads to Hercules regaining memory and escaping the island. Omphale ultimately commits suicide by jumping in the preservation bath when Hercules escapes.[20]

Notes

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References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Omphale

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from Grokipedia
In , Omphale was the queen of in Asia Minor, renowned as the mistress who purchased the hero as a slave for three years of servitude as atonement for his murder of Iphitus. Daughter of the Lydian king Iardanus and widow of King Tmolus, she ruled the kingdom after her husband's death and acquired through the god Hermes at a , as prescribed by an to cure his ensuing disease. During this period, often depicted as one of humiliation for the mighty hero—in some later traditions involving a reversal of gender roles, such as performing women's tasks while Omphale wore his lion skin— served under her command. The myth of Omphale and appears in several classical sources, highlighting her authority and the hero's exploits under her command. According to ancient accounts, while serving Omphale, subdued bandits like the Cercopes near and slew the tyrant Syleus in Aulis along with his daughter Xenodoce, thereby protecting her realm and earning her admiration. Impressed by his valor, Omphale eventually freed him and, in some traditions, took him as her consort, bearing a son named Agelaus, whose descendants included the Lydian king (in other variants, the service lasted one year). Another variant describes her as marrying outright after his service, with whom she had a son called Lamus, emphasizing her transformation from enslaver to partner. Omphale's story underscores themes of , inversion, and royal power in Greek lore, influencing later art and where she is portrayed as a dominant female figure opposite the subdued . ' thraldom to her is referenced in , such as Sophocles' Trachiniae, where it serves as a backdrop to his later quests and personal torments. As a non-Greek queen, she represents the "barbarian" other in mythic discourse, yet her role elevates her as a pivotal figure in ' cycle of labors and redemptions.

Identity and Background

Etymology and Origins

The name Omphale (Ancient Greek: Ὀμφάλη) bears a phonetic resemblance to the Greek word omphalos (ὀμφαλός), meaning "navel" or "center". This similarity has prompted interpretations linking her to themes of centrality or fertility in mythology. No explicit ancient etymological analysis survives in sources like Diodorus Siculus, though the name's form suggests possible adaptation from Lydian or Anatolian linguistic roots, underscoring her foreign, eastern origins. Omphale appears in historical-mythical contexts as a queen of , an Anatolian kingdom in western Asia Minor, where royal succession incorporated matrilineal elements. describes the Heraclid dynasty's claim to the Lydian throne through descent from and a figure connected to King Iardanus—a slave girl or —emphasizing via the line to fulfill an oracle's prophecy, a pattern hinting at 's tradition of female-mediated power transfer. Pausanias similarly alludes to a "Lydian woman" as the mother of ' son Tyrsenus, reinforcing Omphale's (or a precursor's) role in linking Greek heroic lineages to Lydian royalty through maternal ties. These accounts portray as a realm where queens like Omphale wielded significant authority, possibly echoing real or idealized matriarchal structures in Anatolian societies. The earliest literary attestation of Omphale appears in ' tragedy Trachiniae (ca. 450–425 BCE), where the messenger recounts ' servitude to her as a shameful episode, marking her introduction into Attic drama as a foreign ruler. Later, (1st century BCE) provides a fuller , naming her explicitly as Iardanus' daughter and an unmarried queen of the Maeonians (pre-Lydian inhabitants), who inherits rule and integrates heroic figures into her domain. These Greek sources likely draw from older oral traditions.

Family and Lineage

Omphale was the daughter of Iardanus (also spelled Iardanes), a figure in identified as either a king of or a river god linked to the region's hydrology, particularly in proximity to the gold-bearing Pactolus River. This parentage positioned her within the Lydian royal lineage, emphasizing her ties to the land's foundational myths and divine elements. She married Tmolus, the king of , who is eponymously associated with Mount Tmolus, a prominent feature in Lydian geography and lore as a who judged divine contests, such as that between Apollo and . Upon Tmolus's death, he bequeathed the government of to Omphale, establishing her as queen and highlighting a succession pattern where royal authority could pass to a in Lydian tradition. Omphale's role as ruler of underscores the kingdom's occasional allowance for female sovereignty, as reflected in ancient accounts like Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, where her inheritance from Tmolus exemplifies a direct transfer of power without male intermediaries. This arrangement aligned with broader Lydian customs that permitted women prominent roles in governance, contrasting with more strictly patrilineal Greek norms elsewhere. As queen, her status later facilitated unions with figures like , reinforcing her dynastic influence.

Mythological Narrative

Heracles' Service to Omphale

The myth of ' service to Omphale stems from his accidental killing of Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. In a fit of madness induced by , Heracles threw Iphitus from the walls of , leading to a debilitating disease that afflicted him. Seeking purification, Heracles consulted the Delphic Oracle, which commanded him to be sold into slavery for three years, with the proceeds given to Eurytus as atonement for the murder and to cure his affliction. Hermes facilitated the sale, and Omphale, the widowed queen of and daughter of Iardanes—who had inherited the throne from her late husband Tmolus—purchased as her slave. Her royal status enabled this acquisition, placing the mighty hero in servitude to a female ruler. During this period, performed a range of tasks, including heroic exploits such as capturing the mischievous Cercopes bandits near and slaying the bandit Syleus in Aulis, who forced strangers to labor in his vineyard; burned the vines at their roots before killing Syleus and his daughter Xenodoce. recounts similar feats, noting that , now healed, punished robbers like the Cercopes and sacked the city of the Itonoi, delivering captives and spoils to Omphale, emphasizing his continued valor amid servitude. A striking element of the service involved role reversal, with Heracles compelled to undertake traditionally feminine duties, such as spinning and combing wool while dressed in women's attire, including a purple robe and tiara, while Omphale donned his Nemean lion skin and wielded his club. Variations appear in ancient accounts: Apollodorus highlights the three-year duration and Heracles' dutiful submission, portraying a dynamic of humbled obedience, whereas Diodorus focuses on the service lasting until his cure, with less emphasis on domestic tasks and more on martial contributions. In ancient texts, this episode symbolizes profound humiliation through gender inversion, underscoring the hero's subjugation and the erosion of masculine prowess under female authority. satirically evokes the shame of ' wool-spinning and enslavement as a point of mockery among the gods, highlighting the comic absurdity of the mighty warrior's feminization. Roman poets like further interpret it as a against and luxurious indulgence, using the swapped attire to critique moral decay in men who yield to desire and foreign influences.

Offspring and Lydian Legacy

Omphale and had several sons, whose identities vary across ancient accounts. According to , their was Lamos, while the Bibliotheca attributes to them Agelaus, from whom the family of the Lydian king descended. Pausanias names another , Tyrsenus, crediting him with inventing the and noting his role as father to Hegeleos, who taught its use to the . These offspring linked Omphale's lineage to the dynasty that ruled , as described by . He recounts that the Heraclids, descending from and a female slave of Iardanus—widely identified with Omphale—held sovereignty for 505 years through 22 kings, maintaining ancestral customs until the rise of the Mermnad dynasty under Gyges. This genealogy positioned the sons as foundational figures in Lydian kingship, with Agelaus serving as a direct progenitor of later rulers like . Tyrsenus played a key role in broader migrations tied to ' legacy. records a tradition that Tyrsenus, son of and Omphale, migrated to , dispossessing the and giving his name to the (Etruscans), thus connecting Lydian origins to Etruscan foundations. This narrative influenced accounts of and reinforced ' widespread heroic dispersal. After ' departure, Omphale continued her rule over , integrating her reign and offspring into the enduring Heraclid tradition. The dynasty's stability under her descendants underscored 's cultural and political prominence until the Mermnad overthrow, embedding Omphale's legacy within the heroic framework of ' exploits across the Mediterranean.

Cultural Depictions and Interpretations

In Art and Literature

Depictions of Omphale and in primarily appear in red-figure vase paintings from the 5th century BCE, focusing on the hero's servitude and role reversal. A notable example is a pelike dated circa 430 BCE in the , which illustrates receiving a female robe from a servant while Omphale or a figure associated with her offers or receives the skin, symbolizing the exchange of identities during his year of enslavement. These scenes emphasize the humiliation of the mighty hero through and domestic tasks, though explicit spinning motifs are rare in surviving . In Roman literature, the myth undergoes significant evolution, shifting from Greek emphases on expiation and violence to themes of gender inversion, erotic submission, and moral caution. Ovid's Heroides (9, ca. 19 BCE), in Deianira's letter to Heracles, vividly portrays the hero spinning wool at Omphale's feet, clad in women's attire, while she brandishes his club and lion skin—a jealous fantasy that introduces the sensual role swap as a central motif. Propertius' Elegies (3.11, ca. 23 BCE) similarly evokes Heracles' enchantment, describing him as drawing soft wool with his thumb for the Lydian queen, whose beauty subdues the world-conquering hero, blending elegiac love with mythic humiliation. This Roman adaptation, particularly Ovid's influential version, transforms the narrative into an allegory of passion's emasculating power, influencing later interpretations. Medieval mythographers, such as Fulgentius and the 12th-century Mythographus Vaticanus, adopt and moralize Ovid's framework, recasting the tale as a warning against , with ' feminization representing the soul's enslavement to vice. Renaissance artists revived the theme with heightened eroticism, using it to explore sensuality and power dynamics. Lucas Cranach the Elder's Hercules at the of Omphale (1533) depicts the hero seated and spinning thread amid provocatively dressed maidens, while Omphale lounges nearby, her dominance conveyed through luxurious, contemporary attire that accentuates female allure. ' Hercules and Omphale (ca. 1602), housed in the , intensifies this intimacy, showing Omphale embracing the nude , who holds a , as she wields his club and drapes the lion skin over her shoulders, blending mythological with sensuousness. These works, often featuring the swapped lion skin, highlight Omphale's triumphant femininity against ' humbled masculinity.

In Music, Cinema, and Modern Views

In music, the myth of Omphale has inspired several notable compositions from the and Romantic eras. André Cardinal Destouches composed the tragédie en musique Omphale, which premiered at the Opéra on November 10, 1701, with a by Antoine Houdar de la Motte that dramatizes the queen's encounter with , emphasizing themes of love, power, and servitude. Later, created the Le Rouet d'Omphale, Op. 31, in 1871, originally as a piece before orchestration; it evokes the rhythmic motion of Omphale's , symbolizing ' feminized labor through undulating strings and glissandi that mimic the whirring spindle. In cinema, Omphale appears prominently in the peplum genre of the and , which popularized mythological tales through muscular heroes and exotic spectacles. She is portrayed as a seductive and manipulative ruler in Hercules Unchained (1959, directed by Pietro Francisci), where French actress plays the queen who lures the amnesiac —played by —into her service after he drinks from a "fountain of forgetfulness," altering the myth to include this magical element that erases his memories and binds him to her palace. This film, a sequel to the 1958 Hercules, exemplifies Omphale's role in peplum narratives as a embodying Eastern luxury and gender reversal, influencing similar depictions in other adventures of the era. Modern scholarly interpretations of Omphale's myth often explore its implications for gender dynamics and power structures. Feminist readings, such as those by Froma I. Zeitlin, frame the episode as an inversion of patriarchal norms, where Omphale's dominance over Heracles—evident in references to his enslavement in Aeschylus' Oresteia (Agamemnon, lines 1040–41), though the cross-dressing and domestic tasks are developed in later traditions—highlights Greek anxieties about female rule or "gynecocracy," ultimately reinforcing misogynistic resolutions that restore male authority. Psychoanalytic views interpret Hercules' submission as a temporary exploration of gender fluidity and emasculation fears, with the hero's cross-dressing and servitude symbolizing internal conflicts over masculinity in Roman literature, such as Propertius' elegies (3.11, 4.9), without permanent loss of heroic identity. Additionally, discussions of Lydia's cultural legacy portray Omphale as an exemplum of female agency in a region mythically linked to matrilineal or Amazonian influences, where her rule challenges Roman ideals of gendered power, as seen in visual and literary sources emphasizing her beauty intertwined with strength. Recent exhibitions, such as the 2025 display at the Getty Museum of Artemisia Gentileschi's Hercules and Omphale, continue to emphasize Omphale's portrayal as a figure of female strength.

References

  1. https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html
  2. http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/trachinae.html
  3. https://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4B.html
  4. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D7
  5. https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias2B.html
  6. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/matrilineal-succession-in-greek-myth/6C55089C1E8FA3F796FF59F812E5571C
  7. https://pantheon.org/articles/i/iardanus.html
  8. https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/OrosTmolos.html
  9. https://www.theoi.com/Text/LucianDialoguesGods1.html
  10. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/PropertiusBkThree.php
  11. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html
  12. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D21%3Asection%3D3
  13. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D7
  14. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html
  15. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1851-0416-16
  16. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004694651/BP000011.pdf
  17. https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P611/
  18. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6/
  19. https://www.moriareviews.com/fantasy/hercules-unchained-1959.htm
  20. http://moviemagg.blogspot.com/2008/12/hercules-unchained-galateaembassy-1959.html
  21. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo3683741.html
  22. https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:nh914yq8949/Dissertation-Final_Revised%26Formatted-augmented.pdf
  23. https://www.academia.edu/126867646/Strength_in_Beauty_Beauty_in_Strength_Queen_Omphale_of_Lydia_as_a_Mythical_Exemplum_for_Women_in_the_Roman_World
  24. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RAP
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