About Amphion     Son of Zeus and Antiope and twin brother of Zethus, was born on Mt. Cithaeron and left there to be brought up by shepherds.  Antiope had fled the anger of her father Nycteus, who when dying pledged his brother Lycus to find and punish her.  Lycus therefore took her in chains to his home, where she was treated as a slave by his wife Dirce.  But Antiope escaped and fled to Cithaeron to beg the protection of her sons.  They mistook her at first for a slave and were about to kill her by the orders of Dirce, when the shepherd who had brought them up informed them of the truth.  They then made an attack on Lycus, slew him, and killed Dirce by tying her by the hair to a bull. Having thus taken possession of Thebes, they set about fortifying it with a wall.  Amphion played so wonderfully on a lyre which Hermes had given him that the stones moved of themselves into their places.  Amphion later married Niobe, and when their children were killed by Apollo and Artemis because of Niobe's refusal to honor Leto, he killed himself. Back to Family Tree Back to Literature Index