Heracles and Iole.
     Sometime after he completed his labors, Heracles (Hercules) fell in love with Iole, daughter of King Eurytus of Oechalia. (The chronology of the myth is confused, and Heracles’ intimacy with Iole may have preceded or followed that with Deianeira.) Although Heracles had won Iole in an archery contest, her father and brothers would not let her go. Heracles returned to Tiryns, angry and insulted. When Iole’s brother Iphitus, a close friend of Heracles, came to Tiryns in search of some lost cattle, Heracles murdered him in a fit of rage by throwing him from the city’s walls. As punishment, the Delphic oracle sent the hero into slavery for a year, during which he was sold to Omphale, queen of Lydia, and forced to do women’s work and to wear women’s clothes. Sometime after this servitude, Heracles sacked Oechalia and reclaimed Iole, sending her to Trachis. In some later myths, the story of Iole was conflated with that of Omphale, perhaps because Heracles’ servitude to the queen was payment for the crime he had committed in pursuit of Iole.

Further Reference:
Galinsky, G. Karl. 1972. The Herakles Theme: The Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentieth Century. Totowa, N.J., Rowman & Littlefield.

Listings for Heracles are arranged under the following headings:
; Birth of Heracles; Infant Heracles and the Serpents; Choice of Heracles; Madness of Heracles; Pillars of Heracles; Heracles and Cacus; Heracles and Antaeus; Heracles and Deianeira; Heracles and Iole; Heracles and Omphale; Death of Heracles; Apotheosis

See also Heracles, Labors of; Alcestis; Jason, and the Argonauts; Laomedon; Odysseus, in Hades; Pirithous, Wedding; Prometheus, Freed; Theseus, and the Amazons; Titans and Giants