A painting by the Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger “Jupiter and Antioopa”. The size of the picture is 120 x 89 cm, copper. The painting is based on ancient Greek mythological stories. Antipope – the daughter of the King of the Nicene and Polikso, according to Homer and other mythological sources – the daughter of the river god Azop, the mistress of Jupiter, who adopted the image of a satyr.
Hiding from his father’s wrath, the pregnant Antioopa became the wife of the Siconian king Epic. Niktei, dying, bequeathed his brother Lycos to punish Antioch and the Epic, and the one who conquered Sikyon and killed the Epic led the captive Antioch back to his homeland. On the way, she gave birth to the twins Tset and Amphion and left them on Kieferon. The brutal treatment of Dirke, the wife of Lycos, forced her to flee from captivity.
On Kieferon, she found her sons, who their foster father had discovered, who their mother was. Then they cruelly revenged Dirke: she was tied to the tail of a wild bull, and he dragged her to death. This is how Euripides conducts his story in the tragedy of “Antiope”. Subsequently, Dionysus plunged her into insanity, but Fock healed her and took to wife. With him, Antioop was buried in a tomb in Titoria.
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