1. A son of Zeus and Antiope, the daughter of Nycteus of Thebes, and twin-brother of Zethus.
(Ov. Met. 6.110, &c.; Apollod.
3.5.5.) When Antiope was with child by the father of the gods, fear of her own father
induced her to flee to Epopeus at Sicyon, whom she married. Nycteus killed himself in despair,
but charged his brother Lycus to avenge him on Epopeus and Antiope. Lycus accordingly marched
againt Sicyon, took the town, slew Epopeus, and carried Antiope with him to Eleutherae in
Boeotia. During her imprisonment there she gave birth to two sons, Amphion and Zethus, who
were exposed, but found and brought up by shepherds. (Apollod. l.c.)
According to Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 7), Antiope was the wife of
Lycus, and was seduced by Epopeus. Hereupon she was repudiated by her husband, and it was not
until after this event that she was visited by Zeus. Dirce, the second wife of Lycus, was
jealous of Antiope, and had her put in chains; but Zeus helped her in escaping to mount
Cithaeron, where she gave birth to her two sons. According to Apollodorus, she remained in
captivity for a long time after the birth of her sons, who grew up among the shepherds, and
did not know their descent. Hermes (according to others, Apollo, or the Muses) gave Amphion a
lyre, who henceforth practised song and music, while his brother spent his time in hunting and
tending the flocks. (Hor. Ep. 1.18. 41, &c.) The two
brothers, whom Euripides (Eur. Phoen. 609) calls "the
Dioscuri with white horses," fortified the town of Entresis near Thespiae, and settled there.
(Steph. Byz. s. v.) Antiope, who had in the meantime been very
ill-treated by Lycus and Dirce, escaped from her prison, her chains having miraculously been
loosened; and her sons, on recognising their mother, went to Thebes, killed Lycus, tied Dirce
to a bull, and had her dragged about till she too was killed, and then threw her body into a
well, which was from this time called the well of Dirce. After having taken possession of
Thebes, the two brothers fortified the town by a wall, the reasons for which are differently
stated. It is said, that when Amphion played his lyre, the stones not only moved of their own
accord to the place where they were wanted, but fitted themselves together so as to form the
wall. (Apollon. 1.740, 755,
with the Schol.; Syncell. p. 125d.; Horat. ad Pison. 394, &c.)
Amphion afterwards married Niobe, who bore him many sons and daughters, all of whom were
killed by Apollo. (Apollod. 3.5.6; Gellius, 20.7; Hyg. Fab. 7, 8; Hom. Od. 11.260, &c.; Paus. 9.5.4; comp. NIOBE.) As regards the death of Amphion,
Ovid (Ov. Met. 6.271) relates, that he killed himself with a
sword from grief at the loss of his children. According to others, he was killed by Apollo
because he made an assault on the Pythian temple of the god. (Hyg. Fab.
9.) Amphion was buried together with his brother at Thebes (or, according to Stephanus
Byzantius, s. v.Τιθοραία, at Tithoraea), and the Tithoraeans believed,
that they could make their own fields more fruitful by taking, at a certain time of the year,
from Amphion's grave a piece of earth, and putting it on the grave of Antiope. For this reason
the Thebans watched the grave of Amphion at that particular season. (Paus. 9.17.3, &c.) In Hades Amphion was punished for his conduct towards Leto.
(9.5.4.) The following passages may also be compared: Paus.
2.6.2, 6.20.8; Propert. 3.13. 29. The punishment
inflicted by Amphion and his brother upon Dirce is represented in one of the finest works of
art still extant--the celebrated Farnesian bull, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, which
was discovered in 1546, and placed in the palace Farnese at Rome. (Pliny, Plin. Nat. 36.4; Heyne, Antiquar.
Aufsätze, ii. p. 182, &c.; comp. Müller, Orchom. p.
227, &c.)