The mythological story that this panel relates refers to the humiliations that Hercules had to suffer at the court of Queen Omphale, to whom he had been sold as a slave to punish him for the murder of her son Iphito. Becoming the Queen's lover, he had to wear women's clothes and do female tasks. Here he appears with the cap and, in spite of his evident reluctance, about to spin, surrounded by women who laugh at his situation. Signed "HC" (Hans Cranach), the style of the work responds to that of his father, Lucas Cranach, who had already painted this humorous subject.
