Pentheus

Tiresias warned Pentheus that Bacchus would come to Thebes and that the king would be torn apart if he refused the god a temple. Pentheus drove the prophet away and mocked his blindness. When the rites began, he rebuked the Thebans for leaving their arms to join the procession. He ordered his servants to seize Bacchus. They returned instead with Acoetes, who told how his crew had tried to carry the god from Naxos. Acoetes had tried to stop them. Vines covered the ship, wild animals appeared on deck, and the sailors leapt into the sea and became dolphins. Pentheus rejected the account and ordered Acoetes imprisoned. The prison doors opened and the chains fell away.

Pentheus went himself to Mount Cithaeron. The woods rang with the rites, and he climbed a tree to watch the women. The women saw a wild animal where Pentheus stood. His mother struck first, and the others joined her. Pentheus tried to speak to her and to his aunts, but they heard only the cries of the hunt. One aunt tore away an arm; another pulled off the other. Pentheus showed his mother his wounded body and called her by name. She seized his head and claimed the kill with her companions. His limbs were scattered across the ground. The women returned to the rites, carrying the trophies of their frenzy.