Dirce ("double" or "cleft") was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and sister in law to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated. She fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon and abandoned her children, Amphion and Zethus. They were exposed on Mount Cithaeron, but were found and brought up by a shepherd. Nycteus, unable to retrieve his wife, sent his brother Lycus to take her. He did so and gave her as a slave to his own wife, Dirce. In Greek mythology, Lycus, or Lykos, referred to several people. ... Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... ... Statue of Zeus The Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 bc. ... Epopeus was a mythical Greek King of Sicyon. ... Sicyon, an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea. ... Amphion (native of two lands) and Zethus, in ancient Greek mythology, were the twin sons of Zeus by Antiope. ...

Amphion became a great singer and musician after Hermes taught him to play and gave him a golden lyre, Zethus a hunter and herdsman. They punished King Lycus and Queen Dirce for cruel treatment of Antiope, their mother, whom was treated as a slave. Dirce was tied to the horns of a bull as revenge. They built and fortified Thebes, huge blocks of stone forming themselves into walls at the sound of Amphion's lyre. Amphion married Niobe, and killed himself after the loss of his wife and children. Zethus married Aedon, or sometimes Thebe. The brothers were buried in one grave. Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles Hermēs (Greek: Έρμης: pile of marker stones), in Greek mythology, is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general... For the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, see Thebes, Egypt. ... A mortal woman in Greek mythology, Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and either Euryanassa, Eurythemista, Clytia, Dione, or Laodice, and the wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. ... In Greek mythology, Aedon, daughter of Pandareus, was the wife of Zethus. ... In Greek mythology, the name Thebe refers to at least three different people An Amazon A nymph, daughter of Asopus and Metope, wife of Zethus. ...