44. Omphale

According to myth, Heracles was once forced to serve Omphale, the queen of Lydia. In some versions, this enslavement was a punishment imposed after Heracles killed Iphitus; in others, he was sold into slavery by Hermes and bought by Omphale. While in her service, Heracles was famously humiliated by being made to do women’s work, especially spinning wool, while Omphale wore his lion-skin and carried his club. The two eventually became lovers, and some traditions say that they had children together.

For a fuller version of the story that Palaephatus is responding to, see Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.6.3; Diodorus Siculus 4.31.6–8; Ovid, Heroides 9.53–118.

1

εἴρηται: 3rd sing. pf. indic. pass. > λέγω, impersonal, “it is said.”

2

μάταιος δὲ ὁ λόγος: supply ἐστι.

3

ἐξὸν: ptc. sing. pres. act. neut. nom. > ἔξεστι. The neuter participle is used here, as well as in other authors, in an absolute sense, “it being possible.” (LSJ ἔξεστι).

τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτῇ: dative of possessor, “the things belonging to her” or “the things she possessed.”

δεσπόζειν *****: supply Ἡρακλέα as accusative subject of δεσπόζειν. The asterisks indicate that there is a chunk of text missing.

4

οὖν: the particle marks a change of topic. Here, it is from a description of what people say to a description of what really happened, i.e., from myth to history.

τοιόνδε τι: “something like this.” The pronoun τοιόνδε “points” ahead to what P. is about to describe.

6  προσεποιήθη ἐρᾶν αὐτοῦ: "she pretended to be in love with him." προσποιέω in the passive, followed by an infinitive = "to pretend to." LSJ προσποιέω ΙΙ.3. ἐράω normally takes a genitive object.

7

πλησιάσας: the verb might imply simple social contact, or sexual intercourse. LSJ πλησιάζω II.2 and 3.

ἑάλω: 3rd sing. aor. indic. pass. > ἁλίσκομαι, "he was seized." The military metaphor emphasizes the one-sided nature of their relationship.

ἡδόμενος ... αὐτῇ:  "delighting in her."

ὅ τι προστάττοι: the use of an optative verb without ἄν in a relative clause indicates a past general conditional relative clause, “whatever she ordered” (S. 2568). A space is placed between ὅ and τι to distinguish the neuter singular indefinite relative pronoun (ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι) from the conjunction ὅτι “that,” “because.”