March 14: Women's Month

Princess Dirke of Thebes had always been a favourite of wine god Dionysos, and participated in his rituals with the greatest enthousiasm. Her cousin Antiope was rather timid, and didn’t approve of Dirke’s exuberant behaviour. Both were equally beautiful though, and this of course didn’t go unnoticed by supreme god Zeus. As he liked a challenge, he went with Antiope, seducing her in the form of a satyr. Pregnant with his twins, Antiope had to flee and abandon her sons when they were born. They were brought up by a herdsman, while Antiope ended up as Dirke’s slave, beaten and mistreated. Years later, she and her sons reunited, and the twins revenged their mother by unaliving Dirke in a particularly gruesome way. Dionysos however, felt sorry for his protégé and created a spring in her honour. The miracle promptly reinstated Dirke as Thebes’ patroness and it became the city’s finest landmark. While kind Antiope disappeared in history. As they say, good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.

Jupiter and Antiope, Anthony van Dyck, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Gent, Belgium

Punishment of Dirce, fresco (Casa del Granduca, Pompeï),

Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli, Italy