DIRCE  , in

Greek legend, daughter of Helios the sun-god, the second wife of Lycus, king of Thebes . She sorely persecuted Antiope, his first wife, who escaped to Mount Cithaeron, where her twin sons Amphion and Zethus were being brought up by a herdsman who was ignorant of their parentage . Having recognized their mother, the sons avenged her by tying Dirce to the horns of a wild bull, which dragged her about till she died . Her body was cast into a spring near Thebes, which was ever after-wards called by her name . Her punishment is the subject of the famous group called " The Farnese Bull," by Apollonius and Tauriscus of Tralles, in the Naples museum (see GREEK ART, Plate I. fig . 51) .