Pentheus

Here is another myth which would like to tell in full. Here is the tale of the clash between two cousins. One of them was a powerful ruler, and the other was divine. The tragedy of Pentheus (Πενθεύς) also coincided with rise of Dionysus, the young god of wine. Most of this tale was related from Euripides' tragedy, called the Bacchae.

Dionysus had previously spent his time wandering the world in the East (Asia), inflicted with madness by Hera, the queen of Heaven and the wife of Zeus. Hera had always persecuted any offspring of Zeus, by his immortal or mortal lovers. For Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes, and of Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Hera had caused Semele's death before he was born, but Zeus managed to save his unborn son.

While in Asia, Dionysus had established worship and gained followers known as the Bacchants and the Maenads. His rites involved drunken revelries and orgies. Dionysus taught his followers how to cultivate the vine and how to make wine. As a god, Dionysus would reward rulers who allowed him to establish temples in his name, but he would ruthlessly punish those who would not allow his followers to worship him. See Dionysus, Minor Greek Deities.

Dionysus returned to Greece, intending to establish his centre of worship in Thebes, his home city.

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At that time, the god's grandfather, Cadmus, decided to abdicate in favour of his grandson Pentheus, the son of Echion and Agave, Cadmus' daughter. Pentheus was a young king. When Pentheus heard of his cousin Dionysus, he was not impressed. Pentheus did not believe that Dionysus was his cousin because he thought that the unborn child had died with Semele. The king believed that his aunt Semele had died from boasting that Zeus had made her pregnant. Pentheus decided to suppress the worship of Dionysus because the king believed that his cousin was mortal. The king also thought that the rites and revelry were nothing but scandalous and perverted.

Only Cadmus and his friend Teiresias, the blind seer, were the followers of Dionysus. The two old men tried to restrain the young king from acting recklessly. Teiresias warned Pentheus of the consequences of impiety. Pentheus ridiculed the seer and his grandfather for following the Bacchic rites, and the way they were dressed in fawn-skin cloaks and wreaths of ivy on their heads.

Pentheus had already arrested some members of the Bacchants, and he intended to interrogate them. The king wanted to put down the new cult. Pentheus ordered his warriors to arrest a stranger who appeared to be the leader of the Bacchants.

The stranger was pretending to be a priest or prophet of Dionysus, and he allowed himself to be arrested when the other prisoners had escaped. Dionysus warned Pentheus of the danger of angering the god. Pentheus threatened to capture, torture and execute any Bacchants who refused to renounce their loyalty to Dionysus. Pentheus had Dionysus placed in prison, but Dionysus escaped and caused the palace to crumble.

A herdsman arrived and told the king how he had found the Maenads, a band of female Bacchic devotees. Among these women were Agave, Pentheus' own mother, and his two aunts, Autonoe and Ino. The herdsman also told him how they would attack any man who approached them.

Agave, Autonoe and Ino also did not believe that Dionysus was a god. They thought their sister Semele, who was pregnant, had died in the fire along with the unborn child (Dionysus). They thought Zeus had punished the child for Semele claiming that the child belonged to Zeus. When Agave and her sister refused to recognise Dionysus, the young god inflicted his three aunts with madness, so that they participated in the Bacchic Mysteries like the other maenads.

Pentheus had intended to arrest the women, but Dionysus arrived and warned the king not to attack them, or else he would face defeat at the hands of the women. Dionysus convinced the king to spy on the Maenads at Cithaeron hills, at night. Dionysus also convinced his cousin to dress in women's clothing and wear a wig so that the Maenads would not attack him.

Dionysus guided the king to the hill. Pentheus tried to witness the rites that his mother and aunts were involved in, with the Maenads. To get a clearer look at the Bacchic Mysteries, Pentheus climbed the tree, but Agave spotted him, and in her drunken madness, she thought he was a lion. (According to Ovid, they thought he was wild boar).

Agave and her sister pursued Pentheus without recognising the young king. His mother struck and wounded him with the thyrsus. While he was down Agave and her sister were in a frenzy as they tore his limbs off his body. No pleas could stop the mad women, before Agave tore her son's head off.

Cadmus in grief over his grandson's death brought only the body parts he could find. Agave brought the head back to the palace, hoping to show the wild beast's head to her father and her son, not realising he was carrying her son's head.

Cadmus tried to make Agave see what terrible crime she had committed. It was only when her sanity returned that she realised that she and her sisters had been punished for recognising Dionysus as a god.

Dionysus appeared to them, banishing Agave and her sisters for their sins.

Even Cadmus was not spared; the aged king was also exiled along with his wife. Dionysus foretold that Cadmus and Harmonia would be turned into snakes. Only when their lives ended would the gods make Cadmus and his wife would become immortal.

If you wish to read more about Dionysus, then I suggest that you read Dionysus in Minor Greek Deities.

It could be possible that Pentheus' mother and aunts' involvement with Dionysus and the Maenads was Euripides' invention, because the painting of some vases prior to Euripides showed no hint of Agave, Autonoe and Ino as the king's murderers; one murderer was named Galene. I have not been able to verify who this Galene was. Also, the paintings didn't depict Pentheus dressed like a woman to spy on the Maenads. Instead, he was armed for battle. This artwork suggests a different tradition to that of Euripides' play, but other authors (eg Apollodorus and Ovid) followed the example of Euripides' play.