Pentheus

Family: mortals · Role: man · First appears: Aeschylus, Eumenides — Scene 1

At Thebes, Cadmus transferred his honor and power over the land to Pentheus, born from Cadmus’s daughter and the son of Echion. As reigning king, Pentheus opposed Dionysus and his rites: “Pentheus, the then reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva, slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels.” He imprisoned Dionysus, ordered him brought back in chains for execution, and confined him near the stables while threatening his women followers with enslavement. The imprisoned Bacchae escaped when their fetters loosened and the prison doors opened, while Dionysus destroyed Pentheus’s house and left him exhausted after their failed struggle.

Tiresias urged Pentheus not to mistake sovereignty for wisdom, yet Pentheus threatened him with imprisonment among the Bacchae. He ordered an armed attack on the Maenads, but Dionysus persuaded him to disguise himself in women’s clothing and follow him to observe them. During the journey Pentheus became delirious, seeing two suns and twin Thebes; Dionysus presented himself as his guide while leading him toward the Bacchae.

At Cithæron, Dionysus commanded the Bacchae to punish Pentheus for mocking the god and his orgies. Agave tore off his shoulder, Ino tore his flesh, and Autonoe joined the Bacchae as they tore him apart and scattered his body. Agave carried his severed head on a thyrsus before recognizing it as Pentheus’s, after which she regained awareness and changed from her former mind. His enmity with Bromios is likewise recalled as the god’s earlier war against the Bacchants led to a death planned for Pentheus.