At the end of his
three years' slavery he could come back to Calydon and wed
Deianira.
And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave
in Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a widow named
Omphale. To her house Heracles went, carrying his armor and
wearing his lion's skin. And Omphale laughed to see this tall man
dressed in a lion's skin coming to her house to do a servant's
tasks for her.
She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They would
set him to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels on the
tables, and clear the vessels away. Omphale set him to spin with
a spindle as the women did. And often she would put on Heracles's
lion skin and go about dragging his club, while he, dressed in
woman's garb, washed dishes and emptied pots.
But he would lose patience with these servant's tasks, and then
Omphale would let him go away and perform some great exploit.
Often he went on long journeys and stayed away for long times. It
was while he was in slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus
from the dungeon in which he was held with Peirithous, and it was
while he still was in slavery that he made his journey to Troy.
At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls
that years before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city.
As a reward for this labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in
marriage; she was the daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister
of Priam, who was then called, not Priam but Podarces.
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