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δούλης. The usual story (Apollod. ii. 6. 3) is unknown to H.; it called Omphale a daughter of Iardanus (whose name may be Semitic, cf. ‘Jordan’), and made Hercules her bought slave. Later writers, especially the Roman poets, make him assume women's dress and do women's work. Meyer (i. 487) considers that this story is based upon the special Anatolian rites of the great nature-goddess, in which her worshippers cut themselves in sympathy with her sorrows, and even unsexed themselves (cf. story of Attis); so, too, maidens sacrificed their chastity to her (cf. 93. 4; 199 nn.). But if this is the origin of the myth, it is curious that its special feature, the woman's dress, &c., appears only in late versions. It seems better, therefore, to compare the story of Hercules serving Omphale with that of Apollo serving Admetus, and to explain both as a sort of atonement by service; the price of blood shed is worked off in this way. Whence H. derived the figure 505 is a puzzle. According to some it is a calculation based on the average length of a reign; if a generation was taken at 33 1/3 years (ii. 142. 2), a reign might average 22 1/2. R. Schubert (Kön. von Lyd., p. 8) adds the five generations of the Mermnadae (c. 13) to the 22 here, and allows an average of 25 years per generation, thus getting (27 x 25 =) 675 for the total. Deductig the 170 years of the Mermnadae, he gets the 505 given to the Heraclidae (cf. App. XIV. 5). This is plausible, but only one thing is certain, that the figures have no historic value.
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