ABSTRACT
Wife of Lycus, regent of Thebes in Labdacus’ infancy. After his brother Nycteus had been killed trying to recover his daughter Antiope from Epopeus, king of Sicyon, Lycus took the girl back to Thebes and handed her to Dirce, who treated her as a slave, abused her, and finally planned to fasten her to the horns of a mad bull. But Antiope’s sons Amphion and Zethus rescued their mother, punishing Dirce with the very death she had tried to inflict on Antiope. However, as Dirce had been a devotee of Dionysus, the god avenged her death by driving Antiope mad; he also caused a spring of water to well up in the place where the bull had gored Dirce to death.
