Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Antiope, daughter of Nycteus of Boeotia (or of the river Asopus), is loved by Zeus, who approaches her as a satyr in one famous vase and tragic tradition, or simply as the god. She conceives twin sons. Nycteus, shamed, pursues or threatens her; she flees to Sicyon and marries (or takes refuge with) King Epopeus. Nycteus, dying of wounds or grief, charges his brother Lycus to punish Epopeus and bring Antiope back. Lycus takes Sicyon, kills or subdues Epopeus, and leads Antiope captive to Thebes. There Lycus’s wife Dirce, jealous and cruel, torments Antiope—binds her, sets her to menial labor, abuses her as a runaway slave. Antiope’s twins, Amphion and Zethus, had been exposed at birth on Cithaeron and reared by a herdsman; they grow as a musician and a herdsman-hunter, ignorant of their blood. Euripides’ *Antiope* stages their debate on music versus practical life before recognition. Antiope escapes Dirce’s bonds and comes upon her sons; recognition tokens and the herdsman’s tale unite them. The twins avenge their mother: Lycus is killed or forced to yield the throne; Dirce is bound to a wild bull and destroyed (see 03/119). The sons then build Thebes’s walls (03/105). Homer already knows Antiope as mother of Amphion and Zethus, founders of seven-gated Thebes. The Euripidean–Apollodorean line supplies the captivity, Dirce’s cruelty, and the recognition-revenge that make Antiope a tragic heroine rather than a mere genealogical name.