Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Hercules at the Crossroads
  • Creator:
  • Description: This image come from a manuscript of Jakob Lochner's Latin translation of Sebastian Brant's "Narranschiff" and shows Hercules lying before two paths, one broad and one narrow. The broad path terminates at the nude female figure of "Voluptas" who stands in a rosegarden with Death and the fires of Hell behind her. At the end of the narrow path stands a cloaked woman holding a distaff, a symbol of industrious feminine virtue. By the late fifteenth century, the ancient Greek account of Hercules at the crossroads served as an illustration of the "broad, easy way to hell" and the "rocky road to salvation" mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. Thus the message of the image is that female promiscuity, while initially tempting, ultimately leads to damnation. The matron, while not as immediately or obviously sexually available, offers deliverance.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Death Distaffs Gardens Hell Hercules Nude Personification Sexuality
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 15
  • Date: 1497
  • Related Work: Jakob Lochner's Latin translation of Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools, Stultifera navis.
  • Current Location: Basel Universitätsbibliothek, Basel, 1 Aug 1497, fol. 130v.
  • Original Location:
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Prints
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Woodcuts
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): //
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Alison Stewart, "Distaffs and Spindles: Sexual Misbehavior in Sebald Beham’s Spinning Bee" (2003), Faculty Publications and Creative Activity, Department of Art