In Nonnus's fifth-century AD epic poem the Dionysiaca, Pyrrhus (Ancient Greek: Πύρρος, romanized: Púrrhos, lit.
[2] In Mycenaean Greek the name is attested in the form pu-wo (Linear B: 𐀢𐀺).
[2] The little-known and otherwise unattested Pyrrhus was a mortal man from Phrygia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor, who impiously lusted after the goddess Rhea, the mother of the gods, and tried to assault her.
[3][4][5] This happened not far from the site of Niobe's own transformation into a weeping rock after she challenged another goddess, Leto (the mother of Artemis and Apollo).
[3] Pyrrhus's transformation into stone is part of a wider typical theme where a man is punished for his lust that led him to assault a goddess, in this case Rhea.