Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Myths and Legends: Pentheus

Pentheus. To find out more about the death of Pentheus, King of Thebes, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Pentheus was the defiant king of Thebes who banned the worship of the god Dionysus. His tragic punishment is the subject of Euripides' play The Bacchae. Dionysus provoked Agave, Pentheus' mother, together with his other worshippers, to attack Pentheus. In their Dionysian frenzy, the women thought that Pentheus was some kind of wild animal and they pulled him from limb to limb, as you can see in this fresco from Pompeii.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of Feb. 26 - Mar. 3 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.