Pentheus
King of Thebes who denied Dionysus's divinity and was torn apart by his own mother and aunts in a Bacchic frenzy.
The Legend of Pentheus
His own mother ripped his head off — thinking he was a lion. Pentheus refused to accept that his cousin Dionysus was a god and tried to imprison him. Dionysus broke free effortlessly and lured Pentheus to spy on the Maenads by offering to dress him as a woman. Hidden in a tree on Mount Cithaeron, Pentheus was spotted. Dionysus pointed him out, and the maddened women — led by his mother Agave and aunt Ino — tore him limb from limb in sparagmos. Agave carried his head back to Thebes on a thyrsus, proudly displaying her lion kill until the madness cleared. Euripides's Bacchae is built around this scene.
Parents
Echion, Agave
Symbols
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Pentheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes torn apart by his own mother for opposing the worship of Dionysus
Agave
🗡 heromadness
Mother of Pentheus and daughter of Cadmus who tore her own son apart while possessed by Dionysian madness.
Bellerophon
🗡 heroTamer of Pegasus, slayer of the Chimera
The hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and used him to slay the monstrous Chimera. His story is a cautionary tale about hubris.
Capaneus
🗡 herohubris
One of the Seven against Thebes who boasted that not even Zeus could stop him from scaling the walls.
Bellerophon and Pegasus
🗡 herohubris, fall
The hero who tamed Pegasus and slew the Chimera but was destroyed by his own hubris when he tried to fly to Olympus.
Lycurgus of Thrace
🗡 herohubris
Thracian king who rejected Dionysus, drove his followers from the land, and was destroyed by the god's vengeance.
Salmoneus
🗡 herohubris
King of Elis who imitated Zeus by dragging bronze kettles behind his chariot and throwing torches as fake lightning.
Hippolytus
🗡 heroSon of Theseus destroyed by Aphrodite
Hippolytus was the chaste son of Theseus who rejected Aphrodite and was destroyed when his stepmother Phaedra fell in love with him.
Bellerophon
🗡 heroThe hero who tamed Pegasus
The Corinthian hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and slew the Chimera, but fell from heaven when he tried to reach Olympus.
Alcathous
🗡 heroCity Foundation, Athletic Victory
Son of Pelops who rebuilt the walls of Megara and won the throne by slaying the Cithaeronian lion.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Diomedes
🗡 heroKing of Argos who wounded gods
Diomedes was the only mortal in the Iliad to wound two Olympian gods in a single day.