Theatre of Sexual Attraction and Psychological Destruction

Karl Enenkel is Professor of Medieval-and Neo-Latin Literature at the University of Münster. He has published five monographs and well over a hundred articles, and has edited more than forty collective volumes. His latest publication is a critical edition of Erasmus's Apophthegmata, books V–VIII (Brill, 2024).

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsNote on the Author1 Introduction: the Relevance of the Myth of Hercules and Omphale for the History of Emotions2 Hercules and Omphale: the Myth in the Literary Tradition of Greek and Roman Antiquity and of the Middle Ages3 Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris: Psychopathology of Love, Hercules’s furor and Yole’s Strategy of Cunning3.1 The Origins of Boccaccio’s Blurring of Iole and Omphale in De mulieribus claris: Petrarch’s De viris illustribus3.2 Yole’s Destructive Strategy of Feigned Emotions3.3 Boccaccio’s Psychopathology of Love and the Stoic Theory of Affectus3.4 Mythological Figures as Human Beings from Flesh and Blood: Euhemerism in De mulieribus claris and in Genealogiae deorum gentilium3.5 The Religion of Fame: Historical Writing on Women by Boccaccio and Petrarch3.6 Compositional, Rhetorical, and Evaluative Peculiarities of De mulieribus claris3.7 The Impact of De mulieribus claris3.8 The Importance of Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris, Chapter 23, for the History of Emotions: the Theatrical Performance of Emotions, and the Expression of Complex, Compound, and Mixed Emotions4 A Bestseller of the Cranach Factory: Hercules furens as Didactic Tragicomedy of “Weiberlist” (Women’s guile) and “Weibermacht” (Women’s Power)5A Women’s Guile in Manuscript Illuminations of De mulieribus claris and 16th-Century Representations of the Myth5B The Myth as Allegorical Court Satire on the Bad Ruler: Dosso Dossi (ca. 1535–1537)6 Erotic Farce: Bartholomeus Spranger’s Invention of the Myth as Brothel Scene (ca. 1585–1600)7 The Invention of the Myth as Multimedia Entertainment: Gillis Coignet (1590–1599)8 Hercules furens as Tragedy and as Comedy: Alessandro Turchi’s Pendant Paintings in the Alte Pinakothek (ca. 1620)9 Comedy and Courtly Decorum: Adaptations and Transformations of Spranger’s Brothel Scene, 1600–180010 How Low Can Hercules Go? – the Development of Spranger’s Brothel Scene as Vulgar Farce in the 17th and 18th Centuries11 Music and Madness, Furor and Frenzy: Staging the Myth as Bacchus Feast and Sacred Marriage (Statius, Ovid’s Fasti)12 Hercules’s Perturbatio mentis and Female Emotions of the Male Hero13 Iole’s/Omphale’s Triumph or ‘omnia vincit amor’ – the Compound of Triumphant Emotions14 The Humiliation of the Male: Slapstick Humour, Physical Violence15 Omphale as a Moral Example of Chastity and Template for a Female Political Leader? – Simon Vouet’s Comedy and Tragedy of Love16 Sincere Love or Feigned Love? The Art of Creating Ambiguous Emotional Compounds and Erotic Tension17 From Feigned Love to Performative Erotic Techniques: Nude Dance, Dress-Dropping, Erotic Motion, Striptease18 Conclusion18.1 The Iconography of the Myth and Its Consequences: Iconographic Constructions as Settings for Women’s Guile, Gender Relations, and the Expression of Emotions18.2 The Contribution of the Visual Representations of Hercules and Omphale to the Early Modern Discourse on Emotions: Study of the Various Shades of affectus/furorBibliographyIndex Nominum