ANTIOPE

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 133 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ANC-APO

ANTIOPE . (1) In Greek legend, the mother of Amphion and Zethus, and, according to Homer (Od. xi. 26o), a daughter of the Boeotian river-god Asopus. In later poems she is called the daughter of Nycteus or Lycurgus. Her beauty attracted Zeus, who, assuming the form of a satyr, took her by force (Apollodorus iii. 5). After this she was carried off by Epopeus, king of Sicyon, who would not give her up till compelled by her uncle Lycus. On the way home she gave

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

, in the neighbour-hood of Eleutherae on

Mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

Cithaeron, to the twins Amphion and Zethus, of whom Amphion was the son of the god, and Zethus the son of Epopeus. Both were left to be brought up by herdsmen. At Thebes Antiope now suffered from the persecution of Dirce, the wife of Lycus, but at last escaped towards Eleutherae, and there found shelter, unknowingly, in the

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

where her two sons were living as herdsmen. Here she was discovered by Dirce, who ordered the two

young

men to tie her to the horns of a wild

bull

. They were about to obey, when the old herdsman, who had brought them up, revealed his

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

, and they carried out the punishment on Dirce instead (Hyginus; Fab. 8). For this, it is said, Dionysus, to whose

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

Dirce had been devoted, visited Antiope with madness, which caused her to wander restlessly all over Greece till she was cured, and married by Phocus of Tithorea, on

Mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

Parnassus, where both were buried in one grave (Pausanias ix. 17, X. 32).
(2) A second Antiope, daughter of Ares, and sister of Hippolyte; queen of the

Amazons

AMAZONS

, was the wife of Theseus. There are various accounts of the manner in which Theseus became possessed of her, and of her subsequent fortunes. Either she gave herself up to him out of love, when with Heracles he captured Themiscyra, the seat of the

Amazons

AMAZONS

, or she fell' to his lot as a captive (Dipdorus iv. 16). Or again, Theseus himself
invaded the dominion of the Amazons and carried her off, the consequence of which was a counter-invasion of Attica by the Amazons. After four months of war peace was made, and Antiope left with Theseus as a peace-offering. According to another account, she had joined the Amazons against him because he had been untrue to her in desiring to marry Phaedra. She is said to have been killed by another Amazon, Molpadia, a rival in her affection for Theseus. Elsewhere it was believed that he had himself killed her, and fulfilled an oracle to that effect (Hyginus, Fab. 241). By Theseus she had a son, the well-known Hippolytus (Plutarch, Theseus).

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