3-016-413 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Hercules at the Court of Omphale, 1537. In Greek legend, Hercules murdered his friend Iphitus in a struggle for power and who was thus punished by Hermes, who sold him to the court of Queen Omphale where he had to remain as a slave for three years. Hercules is seated on a wooden bench, surrounded by three courtly women and subjected to female rule, despite his celebrated physical strength. None of the women wears any distinctive item of dress or adornment for which reason it has been suggested that they are the queen’s ladies-in-waiting.