Autonoe

Family: Thebes · Role: sister of Semele · First appears: Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 1

Autonoe is a Theban royal and the sister of Semele, Agave, and Ino, as well as the daughter of Cadmus and mother of Actaeon. In the opening of The Bacchæ, Dionysus drove her and her sisters mad and expelled them from the house after they denied that he was born of Jove.

At Cithæron, Autonoe followed Dionysus’s command with Agave, Ino, and the Bacchae. She joined them in attacking Pentheus and pressing on as he was torn apart; afterward, Dionysus decreed banishment for Cadmus and his daughters, sending them to foreign lands.

Relationship record

Life events

• Bacchus drove Agave, Autonoe, and Ino mad and expelled them from the house.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 1)
  • With: Dionysus Agave Ino
  • “Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness”
• The Bacchae tear Pentheus apart and scatter his body in pieces.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 6 · 📍 Cithæron)
  • With: Agave Ino Pentheus
  • “the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of Pentheus: and his body lies in different places”
• Agave and her sisters kill Pentheus during the Bacchic frenzy.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 7 · 📍 Cithæron)
  • With: Agave Ino Pentheus
  • “And having returned again to the mountain, I bring back my child, slain by the Mænads.”
• Dionysus's decree banishes Cadmus and his daughters to foreign lands.(Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 7 · 📍 Thebes)
  • With: Dionysus Cadmus Agave Ino
  • “Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree [for us,] old man. BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be? CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and your * * * * sisters, and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to foreigners.”

Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 1

• siblings with Semele “the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino”
• enemies with Dionysus “the sisters of my mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore I have now driven them from the house with frenzy”
• with Dionysus (Bacchus drove Autonoe to madness.) “Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness,”

Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 2

• child: Actaeon “and the mother of Actæon, I mean Autonoe;”

Euripides, The Bacchæ — Scene 6

• parent: Cadmus “And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones”
• siblings with Agave “his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones”
• siblings with Ino “and Ino completed the work on the other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the Bacchæ pressed on”
• mentor: Dionysus “And again he proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi through the air at Pentheus”
• enemies with Pentheus “And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the Bacchæ pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed, groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.