Dirce ( / ˈ d ɜːr s iː / ; Ancient Greek : Δίρκη , pronounced [dírkɛː] , modern Greek [ˈðirci] , meaning "double" or "cleft") was a queen of Thebes as the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology .
7-462: Dirce was a daughter of the river-gods Achelous or Ismenus , or of Helios . After Zeus impregnated Dirce's niece Antiope , the latter fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon , but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way. Lycus gave Antiope to Dirce. Dirce hated Antiope and treated her cruelly, until Antiope, in time, escaped. In Euripides 's lost play Antiope , Antiope flees back to
14-698: The Farnese Bull , which is now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples . The colossal piece, a first-century-AD Roman copy of a second-century-BC Hellenistic Greek original, was first excavated in the 16th century in the Baths of Caracalla . Some scholars identify it with the statue group mentioned in Pliny's Natural History , but this is disputed. This scene
21-403: 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
28-543: The fathers of the Naiads and Potamides . The river gods were depicted in one of three forms: a man-headed bull, a bull-headed man with the body of a serpent-like fish from the waist down, or as a reclining man with an arm resting upon an amphora jug pouring water. Notable river gods include: Ancient Greek poet Hesiod mentioned several river gods by name, along with their origin story, in Theogonia ("the birth of
35-405: The god Dionysus , who caused a spring to flow where she died, either at Mount Cithaeron or at Thebes , and it was a local tradition for the outgoing Theban hipparch to swear in his successor at her tomb. In Statius 's Thebaid , the spring is a symbol of Thebes , 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
42-513: The gods"): And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander. — Theogony, Hesiod. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914) The following are
49-569: Was recreated in spectacles in the Roman arena. Potamoi The Potamoi ( Ancient Greek : Ποταμοί , romanized : Potamoí , lit. 'Rivers') are the gods of rivers and streams of the earth in Greek mythology . The river gods were the 3000 sons of the great earth-encircling river Oceanus and his wife Tethys and the brothers of the Oceanids . They were also
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