Heracles pays the penalty for multiple murders, as he is subjugated, stripped of his lion-skin and club, dressed in women’s clothing, and forced to serve Queen Omphale.
Spranger
When the centaur Nessus tries to abduct his wife, Hercules shoots him with a poisoned arrow. But Nessus gets his revenge when Hercules’ wife gives her husband a shirt impregnated with Nessus’ blood.
These became popular in the late 16th century, with fine examples from Lavinia Fontana, Paul Bril, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and Adam Elsheimer.
That well-muscled man brandishing a large olive-wood club and wearing a lion-skin can only be the ultimate high-testosterone uncouth hero, Hercules.
Scylla accosted by the grotesque sea-god Glaucus. When she runs away from him, he seeks the help of Circe, only for her to turn Scylla into a pack of hounds, then into a hazard to navigation.
When the nymph Salmacis falls in passionate love with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, he resists, and they are joined together in single body.
A simple story of an unsuccessful attempt at abduction and rape becomes a compositional struggle. It also results in the death of Heracles.
The curious myth of the swashbuckling hero Hercules dressed in women’s clothing and forced to serve Queen Omphale.
The best known scene in the story of Angelica and Medoro, as painted by Spranger, Ricci, Tiepolo and others.
Was he a monster or a god? When Glaucus rises from the surface of the sea, Scylla runs away in terror. With a superb painting by JMW Turner.
