Dirce

der'se, in Greek legend, the second wife of Lycus. Lycus was a usurping monarch. He divorced his rightful wife Antiope in order to wed Dirce. Dirce was jealous of the first wife and caused her to be imprisoned. Zeus came to the aid of Antiope and released her. Her sons avenged their mother's wrongs by killing Lycus and tying Dirce to the horns of a bull--some accounts say to the tail of a horse. She was dashed to pieces on the rocks, but the gods pitied her and changed her into a spring which flows near Thebes and is called by her name. The punishment of Dirce is the subject of a famous group of statuary now in the Museum at Naples. The group is known as the Farnese Bull. See Antiope; Farnese Bull