Dirce

Dirce was a daughter of the river-gods AchelousEuripides, Bacchae 519 or Ismenus,Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 77; Euripides, Heracles 784; Nonnus, 44.10; or of Helios.Bell, s. v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/168/mode/2up?view=theater Dirce (1)]

File:Wall painting - punishment of Dirke - Pompeii (VII 4 56) - Napoli MAN 9042 - 01.jpg

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.Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.5.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.5.5]; Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.25.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 9.25.3]

In Euripides's lost play Antiope, 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 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.Tripp, p. 213. In Statius's Thebaid, the spring is a symbol of Thebes, and its name is often used metonymically to refer to the city itself.

File:Farnese Bull MAN Napoli Inv6002 n07.jpg

The death of Dirce is depicted in a marble statue known as 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.

File:Siemiradzki Christian Dirce.jpg.]]

This scene was recreated in spectacles in the Roman arena.

{{reflist}}

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
• 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
• Callimachus, Works. A.W. Mair. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0481 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Euripides, The Tragedies of Euripides translated by T. A. Buckley. Bacchae. London. Henry G. Bohn. 1850. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0092 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Euripides, Euripidis Fabulae. vol. 3. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0091 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Euripides, Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Euripides, Euripidis Fabulae. vol. 2. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0101%3Acard%3D1 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. [https://topostext.org/work/529 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940–1942. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0485 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Publius Papinius Statius, The Thebaid translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. [https://topostext.org/work/149 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• Publius Papinius Statius, The Thebaid. Vol I-II. John Henry Mozley. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0498 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Crowell Press, 1970.

• Images of Dirce in the [http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=5&cat_2=868 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025435/http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=5&cat_2=868 |date=2016-03-04 }}

{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}

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Category:Children of Greek river gods

Category:Women in Greek mythology

Category:Mythological Thebans

Category:Children of Helios

Category:Queens in Greek mythology

Category:Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology