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.
The large bronzes are almost the only ones which have survived from classical times, the most famous of them being the seated Mercury and the dancing Faun; the marbles reckon among their vast number the Psyche, the Capuan Venus, the portraits of Homer and Julius Caesar, as well as the huge group called the Toro Farnese (Amphion and Zethus tying Dirce to its horns), the Farnese Hercules, the excellent though late statues of the Balbi on horseback and a very fine collection of ancient portrait busts.
On the way home she gave birth, in the neighbourhood of Eleutherae on Mount Cithaeron, to the twins Amphion and Zethus, of whom Amphion was the son of the god, and Zethus the son of Epopeus.