The Bacchantes
(Euripides)
Dionysus returns to the land of his birth, the city of Thebes, in disguise. He is angry at the women of Thebes for denying him his rights of worship, and sends them all mad. The women become his Bacchantes, and run off into the forest to revel in the rights of Dionysus. They become drunk with wine and dance in wild displays of Dionysian rituals. He is especially angry with the family of Cadmus and seeks their destruction.
The chaste and prudish King of Thebes, Pentheus, is furious when he returns to discover the women, including his mother, have gone off into the forest. His grandfather Cadmus and the seer, Tiresius, also decide to join the women in the forest, wisely realizing the danger of going against the wishes of the Gods.
As an attempt at restoring order, Pentheus orders the destruction of Tiresius' shrine and he has the disguised Dionysus imprisoned. The women, however, he has not been able to overcome and after Dionysus also regains his freedom, the God convinces Pentheus to dress as a woman and enter the forest as one of the Bacchantes to go among them in disguise and find his mother and bring her back to the city.
After dressing as one of the female Bacchantes, Pentheus enters the forest and finds the women's dwelling place. However, Dionysus achieves his ultimate revenge by driving the women in their madness to think that Pentheus is a wild beast. The women, at Pentheus' mother's insistence, fall upon Pentheus and tear him to pieces. Agave, his mother, hods Pentheus' head in her hands imagining it to be that of a wild beast and Dionysus' revenge is complete.
After the dreadful act has taken place, Dionysus releases the women from their madness and Agave realizes that she has destroyed her own son. Dionysus reveals himself as the God he is and tells the former Bacchantes that he had Pentheus killed because he refused to honor and worship him and thus put himself against the will of the gods.
Agave and Cadmus protest at the dreadful punishment bestowed on Pentheus and Cadmus' family and they are sent into exile.
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