Hercules is not a character who would be unknown to any lover of Greek mythology, but some aspects of his life, still are not known to the vast majority. The greatest of Greek Heroes & son of God Zeus, and personification of strength & masculinity, this story of Hercules (at least most of it) is not about these qualities of his. This story describes the events that forced him to become a slave, the time he spent as a slave, and finally his triumph to become his old self once again.
And of course, this story would also not be complete without describing Omphale, who initially owned Hercules as a slave owner & later became his wife. But before we go on with our story, it would be prudent to know, who Omphale was, as certainly no ordinary woman could be the owner of Hercules; but then Omphale was no ordinary woman, she was a queen & this story should ideally be called as a story of Hercules and Queen Omphale.
Queen Omphale was born as a daughter of Iardanus, who was a King. Later Omphale would get married to Tmolus, who was King of Lydia. Some sources also describe him as the mountain god, who judged the musical contest between the Greek god – Pan & Apollo. Unfortunately, he invoked the wrath of the Greek Goddess Artemis, by his disgraceful action of raping a virgin companion of Artemis named Arrhippe, in the goddess’s temple. A humiliated Arrhippe hanged herself in shame.
Needless to say, that Artemis was so furious that she sent a mad bull, who threw Tmolus into sharp stakes, thus killing him on a mountain, that has his name (Mount Tmolus). On his death, the power and crown went into the hands of his wife - Queen Omphale.
Lydia was an ancient kingdom that was present in southwestern Asia Minor, in what now is modern-day Turkey. Even on those days, Lydia was neither a part of Greece, nor it had Greek-speaking people. So, by standards of those days, the Greek world considered the Kingdom of Lydia, as a land of Barbarians.
However, whatever the Greeks may have thought about this kingdom, the fact remained that the Kingdom of Lydia was very rich due to the presence of gold deposits in it & the kingdom even built a center to carry out gold refining operations on the banks of Pactolus River. Even the ancient Greek Historian Herodotus has mentioned that Lydians were the first to develop coins for circulation, from the gold that they refined.
Before we go to the story of Hercules and Queen Omphale, it should be important to describe the circumstances that were responsible for the events where Hercules as a slave, had to serve Queen Omphale. Although Hercules was one of the greatest heroes of Greek mythology & had done many heroic acts, this chapter of his life rose from an incident for which the hero himself regretted later.
The unfortunate victim of this tragic story is Iphitus, who was the son of King Eurytus, the king of Oechalia. Iphitus was killed by Hercules, without any fault. There are multiple versions of the story (explaining how and why) regarding Hercules killing Iphitus, but in none of the versions, is the actions of Hercules justified.
According to what is the most popular version, given by Apollodorus, Hercules had killed Iphitus in a fit of madness. Now people who are well versed with the legend of Hercules would know that Hercules, did kill quite a few people in a fit of madness. According to Apollodorus, some cattle were stolen from King Eurytus & the king suspected that it was Hercules who had stolen it.
Despite the king’s doubt, Iphitus believed that Hercules was innocent & decided to clear his name by searching for the missing cattle himself. However, Iphitus asked Hercules to accompany him, while he went searching for the cattle; to which Hercules happily agreed. While searching for the cattle, Hercules again suffered from a fit of madness & without understanding his actions, threw Iphitus from the walls of the Tiryns, thus killing him.
Hercules after coming back to his senses was filled with remorse. The fact that it was a moment of ‘temporary insanity’ that made him commit murder was not acceptable in the Greek society of the time. His actions demanded some kind of punishment. Hercules himself wanted to make some kind of amends to his horrible actions. So, Hercules, met the Oracle of Delphi, for a solution.
The Oracle of Delphi advised that the mighty Hercules must be sold as a slave, and the money earned from this transaction should be given to King Eurytus, as a form of compensation for the death of his son – Iphitus, killed by Hercules. So, Hercules was sold as a slave to Queen Omphale, the Lydian queen, who paid a price of 3 silver talents for him. Although King Eurytus refused to accept any kind of compensation, for the death of his son; Hercules still held up his part of the bargain and became a slave to Queen Omphale.
Slavery is a hated obsolete institution nowadays but in the old times, it caused a lot of misery to many people. Hercules as a slave didn’t exactly enjoy his situation. For a man who was considered a hero & a legend in his lifetime, being a slave was quite a humiliation, and being a slave to a woman who was considered barbarian and not even equal to an ordinary Greek was considered quite shameful. However, Hercules had accepted his punishment and was willing to do everything, that would help him to atone for his sin.
Many Hercules and Queen Omphale paintings made by ancient painters, show the humiliation faced by Hercules during this period of servitude. This included situations where Hercules was made to wear female clothing. Queen Omphale on the other hand, in this situation, wore the prized skin of the Nemean Lion (which was originally killed by Hercules) and also carried the olive wood club of Hercules.
Hercules was forced to do those work, which in those times was done only by women & considered lowly. This included holding a basket of wool while Queen Omphale and her attendants did the spinning. Some sources even go as far as describing, that Omphale even used to beat Hercules with a slipper (as described by Lucian). Hercules being a gentleman, never retaliated against a woman, besides he was accepting the punishment, as a part of his repentance for killing his innocent friend.
Although Queen Omphale bought Hercules as a slave, for her service; Hercules was a brave & noble hero, who continued to demonstrate his true characteristics even while being a slave. Even during the period of his servitude, Hercules undertook many minor labors, to help people & get rid of the evil around him. Some of these were
One of the important characters slain by Hercules during this duration was – the brutal vine owner Syleus. Syleus forced strangers to work in his vineyard and would later kill these unfortunate people. Hercules would go on to kill Syleus and burn his vineyard.
Hercules would also go on to defend the land & people of Queen Omphale, from their troublesome neighbors. The Itoni were raiding the land of Queen Omphale and creating problems. Hercules was successful in conquering them & put an end to the trouble caused by these people.
Another deadly farmer – Lityerses, who was related to the king of Phrygia, was causing trouble for innocent people. He too like previously described Syleus, would force people to work for him and compete with him in a reaping contest & later would cut off their heads. Hercules would beat the cunning farmer on his own game by defeating him in the reaping contest and would later cut off the head of the villain, as he had done with others.
Hercules also killed a huge snake which was destroying crops and killing people in Lydia, which earned him the gratitude of the people.
Giving a befitting burial to Icarus (the son of famous – Daedalus) who fell from the sky and died, when he flew too close to the Sun & his wings melted; was also done by the mighty Hercules during this period. Hercules had found the dead body of Icarus washed ashore on the Doliche island. Hercules did what was the most humane thing to do at the moment & buried the body. The island was renamed Ikaria.
It is said that Hercules spent 3 years as a slave to Queen Omphale. Although Queen Omphale had put Hercules in many embarrassing situations throughout his period of slavery, gradually the two fell in love and they were married after Hercules was given his freedom. Thus, Queen Omphale would become the second wife of Hercules, the first being Megara.
Hercules and Omphale would be very much in love post their marriage & Queen Omphale and Hercules would go on to have at least two sons named – Tyrsenus and Agelaus. Agelaus would later become well known because of descendants like Croesus – the famous Lydian king. Tyrsenus would also later become famous on his own when he was recognized as the inventor of the trumpet (as per ancient legends). However, he would not stay in Lydia but would travel to Italy, where the land areas around the Tyrrhenian sea would be named – Tyrrhenia, on his honor.
Some people also believe that Hercules and Omphale also had a third son, by the name of Alcaeus. However, some other sources maintain that this son of Hercules was not from Omphale, but some other Lydian slave woman. Finally, Hercules would leave Queen Omphale and Kingdom of Lydia and return to Greece, where he would marry for the 3rd time to Deianira, but that is another story.
Queen Omphale was not the only wife that Hercules ever had. However, the story with Queen Omphale is important because the situation and the incidences that occurred during this duration, happened when Hercules became a slave to a woman, whom he later married.
The ancient story of Hercules and Omphale has found reflection in different art forms since then, most common of which is perhaps the Hercules and Omphale paintings made by multiple European masters. Besides influencing the artists, the reversal of gender roles that occurred in case of Hercules and Omphale, and especially the description of Queen Omphale beating Hercules with a slipper (as described by Lucian) have also raised some important questions on the very less talked about, a social problem like – domestic violence against males.
The Hercules and Omphale story is certainly multifaceted and highlights a spectrum of human emotions. It is a fact that despite Hercules being a very popular hero, the story of Hercules as a slave is relatively unknown. Maybe that is because we all want to see our heroes as a strong manly figure who can conquer any insurmountable odds. However, we forget that even heroes are also fallible human beings who may suffer because they may feel repentant on killing an innocent person or they may fall in love with their oppressor, who in this case was the beautiful Queen Omphale.
You may also like: Who was Queen Scotia?