AfterZeus impregnated Dirce's niece-by-marriageAntiope, the latter fled in shame to KingEpopeus ofSicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twinsAmphion and Zethus on the way. Lycus gave Antiope to Dirce. Dirce hated Antiope and treated her cruelly, until Antiope, after many years, escaped.[4]
InEuripides's lost playAntiope, Antiope flees back to the cave where she gave birth to Amphion and Zethus; they are now living there as young men. They disbelieve her claim to be their mother and refuse her pleas for sanctuary, but when Dirce comes to find Antiope and orders her to be killed, the twins are convinced by the shepherd who raised them that Antiope is their mother. They kill Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull.
Dirce was devoted to the godDionysus, who caused a spring to flow where she died, either atMount Cithaeron or atThebes, and it was a local tradition for the outgoing Thebanhipparch to swear in his successor at her tomb.[5] InStatius'sThebaid, the spring is a symbol ofThebes, and its name is often used metonymically to refer to the city itself.
The death of Dirce is depicted in a marble statue known as theFarnese Bull, which is now in the collections of theNational Archaeological Museum inNaples. The colossal piece, a first-century-AD Roman copy of a second-century-BCHellenistic Greek original, was first excavated in the 16th century in theBaths of Caracalla. Some scholars identify it with the statue group mentioned in Pliny'sNatural History, but this is disputed.
Callimachus,Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive
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