Dirce Bound to the Horns of a Wild Bull. A.M. 2634.

This is part of a group of drawings by British artist and book illustrator Edward Francis Burney, depicting scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology. Dirce was originally the wife of King Lycus of Thebes in Central Greece. Because of her jealousy and cruel treatment of her niece, Antiope, Lycus had her tied to a wild bull and she was torn limb from limb. The god of wine, fertility and revelry, Dionysus, later transformed her in to the Naiad-nymph of the spring of Dirce near Thebes. The spring's waters were sacred to him.