This paper will focus in particular on the myth of Hercules’ enslavement to
Omphale which features as the national aetiology of the nakedness of the
Luperci in Book 2 of the Fasti. The protagonists of this amusing example of
“sexual comedy” are Hercules, Omphale, and a salacious outsider: Faunus-
Lupercus. As it happens in didactic love elegy (where Hercules plays the role of
the foundational hero of the seruitium amoris), the Fasti, too, do not seem to
look at this myth under a negative perspective. Despite the comic allure of the
whole context, Hercules still adheres to the cliché of the strong, muscular hero,
but also proves to be a champion of modern and cultivated virility. The Ovidian
remake of the Hercules-Omphale myth also constitutes an interesting chapter of
the early reception of Ovid’s Fasti, as is well documented by some passages
from Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid.
