Agave
heroMother of Pentheus and daughter of Cadmus who tore her own son apart while possessed by Dionysian madness.
The Myth
She carried her son's severed head through the streets of Thebes — believing it was a lion's. Agave, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, denied that her nephew Dionysus was divine. As punishment, Dionysus drove her and her sisters into a Bacchic frenzy on Mount Cithaeron. When Pentheus came to spy on them, Agave led the attack, ripping off his arm, then his head. She mounted it on a thyrsus and brought it to her father Cadmus, boasting of her hunt. The moment Cadmus makes her recognize what she holds is the most devastating recognition scene in Greek tragedy. Euripides's Bacchae ends with her exile.
Children
Symbols
Fun Fact
The recognition scene in the Bacchae — Agave realizing she holds her son's head — is considered the peak of Greek tragic writing.
Explore Further
Pentheus (King)
heroKing of Thebes who denied Dionysus's divinity and was torn apart by his own mother and aunts in a...
Cadmus
heroCadmus was the Phoenician prince who founded Thebes, sowed dragon's teeth, and brought the alphabet...
Cadmus and the Spartoi
heroThe Phoenician prince who founded Thebes and introduced the Greek alphabet, whose sowing of dragon...
Dionysus Eleuthereus
godAn epithet of Dionysus as the Liberator, worshipped at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens where the...
Harmonia
godHarmonia was the goddess of harmony and concord, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, whose wedding...
Dionysia
conceptThe major Athenian festival honouring Dionysus, featuring dramatic competitions that gave birth to...
Dionysus
godGod of wine, ritual madness, and theatrical performance. Dionysus was the only Olympian born of a...
Dionysus Zagreus
godOrphic form of Dionysus, the divine child torn apart by Titans whose heart was saved to allow his...
Mount Ida (Crete)
placeMount Ida was the highest peak in Crete, home to the cave where the infant Zeus was hidden from his...
Mount Ida (Troy)
placeMount Ida near Troy was the mountain from which the gods observed the Trojan War and where Paris...
Mount Olympus (Sacred)
placeThe highest mountain in Greece and mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods, whose...
Mount Parnassus
placeMount Parnassus was the mountain above Delphi sacred to Apollo and the Muses — the symbolic home of...