Hercules, Omphale, and Octavian's 'Counter-Propaganda'

Abstract

This article pays close attention to one aspect of the famous battle of images between Mark Antony and Octavian in the build-up to Actium. It challenges the common assumption that the figures of Hercules and Omphale were purposefully portrayed as Octavian 'anti-propaganda'‚ against Mark Antony and Cleopatra, displaying the triumvir as emasculated by the Egyptian Queen. The link between Hercules and Antony was tenuous, especially in his later career, and there is little evidence that the mythological scene had propagandistic connotations. With this in mind, it seems that a political reading of the images is stretching the evidence too far.

drama satírico Ônfale, de Íon de Quios, parte 1

“…Classica, e-ISSN 2176-6436, v. 34, n. 2, 2021 parte das evidências iconográficas é também dessa mesma época, quando o tema desfrutou de grande popularidade e se tornou até mesmo item de propaganda política (Hekster, 2004 A fig. 1 constitui exemplo típico das representações artísticas tardias.…”

Hercules, Mummius, and the Roman Triumph inAeneid8

“…on the alleged role of Hercules in the mud-slinging campaigns between Augustus and Antony in the 30s and 20s BCe, with sources for Antony's connections to Hercules, see Zanker 1988, 57-65. For a rebuttal of Zanker's claims, see Hekster 2004Hekster . 6. itgenshorst (2004 similarly suggests this type of relation between Augustus as triple triumphator and his triumphal republican predecessors; her argument, however, has nothing to do with the Aeneid and more to do with Augustus' self-presentation as continuator of a republican tradition by means of the Fasti Triumphales and the gallery of summi viri in the Forum Augustum, both of which postdate the Aeneid.…”