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Document Details : Title: Hercules, Omphale, and Octavian's 'Counter-Propaganda' Author(s): HEKSTER, O. Journal: BABESCH Volume: 79 Date: 2004 Pages: 159-166 DOI: 10.2143/BAB.79.0.504741 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. |
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