Omphale

Omphale was a queen of Lydia who bought the Greek hero Hercules as a slave for three years as punishment for the murder of his friend Iphitus (Apollodorus 2.6:3). In this time he grew effeminate and took to wearing women's clothes and spinning yarn (to which Omphale points in the present work). Although absent in classical art, the subject is found in Hellenistic times, and in Renaissance and particularly Baroque painting, it represents the idea of woman's domination over man.

The head of Omphale in the present painting may be compared with that of the same figure in one of Desubleo's finest works, Hercules and Omphale, of circa 1641 (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena).