Omphălé
（Ὀμφάλη). The daughter of the Lydian king Iardanus, and wife of Tmolus, on whose death she governed the kingdom herself. When Heracles was cursed with a dangerous disease as a punishment for the slaying of Iphitus, the oracle informed him that he could only be cured by serving for hire for a period of three years. To effect the cure, Hermes sold him to Omphalé, with whom he fell in love, and to please her put on her garments and spun wool, while she wore his lion skin. By him she had several children (Diod.iv. 31; Apollod. ii.6.3; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 305; Her. ix. 53). |
| Heracles and Omphalé. (Naples Museum.) |