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Pentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus (; ) was a king of Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Thebes. His father was Echion, the wisest of the Spartoi. His mother was Agave (Theban princess), Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and grandson of the goddess Harmonia (mythology), Harmonia. His sister was Epirus (mythology), Epeiros and his son was Menoeceus. Much of what is known about the character comes from the interpretation of the myth in Euripides' tragic play, ''The Bacchae''. Mythological biography The story of Pentheus' resistance to Dionysus and his subsequent punishment is presented by Euripides as follows. Cadmus, the Theban kings in Greek mythology, king of Thebes, abdicated due to his old age in favour of his grandson Pentheus. Pentheus soon banned the worship of the god Dionysus, who was the son of his aunt Semele, and forbade the women of Cadmeia to partake in his rites. An angered Dionysus caused Pentheus' mother Agave (Theban princess), Agave and his aunts Ino (G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; , ''Bakkhai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included '' Iphigeneia at Aulis'' and ''Alcmaeon in Corinth'', and which Euripides' son or nephew is assumed to have directed. It won first prize in the City Dionysia festival competition. The tragedy recounts the Greek myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, who were punished by the god Dionysus (who is Pentheus's cousin) for rejecting his cult. The play opens with Dionysus proclaiming that he has arrived in Thebes with his votaries to avenge the slander, repeated by his aunts, that he is not the son of Zeus. Disguised as a foreign holy man, the god intends to introduce Dionysian rites into the city, but the Thebans reject his divinity and king Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agave (Theban Princess)
In Greek mythology, Agave (; or 'high-born'), was the daughter of Cadmus and a princess of Thebes. She is most well known for her role in the myths surrounding her nephew, Dionysus, god of wine. Family Agave was the eldest daughter of Cadmus, a legendary hero, king, and founder of the city of Thebes, and of the goddess Harmonia, goddess of harmony. She had three sisters: Autonoë, Ino and Semele, and a brother, Polydorus.Apollodorus3.4.2/ref> Agave married Echion, one of the five Spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, and Epirus. Mythology In Euripides' play ''The Bacchae'', Semele, while pregnant with Dionysus, was tricked by Hera into witnessing the true form of Zeus, and was destroyed by the sight. Agave, Ino, and Autonoë began to spread a rumor that Semele had only been pretending that Zeus was the father of her child in order to conceal the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock with the child of a mortal man, and that her death was a punishm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Ancient Rome, Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''baccheia''. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''thyrsus'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his Cult of Dionysus, cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thrace, Thracian, others as Greek. In O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polydorus (son Of Cadmus)
In Greek mythology, Polydorus or Polydoros (; means 'many-gift d) was a king of Thebes. Family Polydorus was the youngest and only male child of Cadmus and Harmonia, his sisters were Autonoë, Ino, Agave and Semele. He was the father of Labdacus by Nycteïs, the daughter of Nycteus. Mythology Upon the death of Cadmus, Pentheus, the son of Echion and Agave, after banishing Polydorus ruled Thebes for a short time until Dionysus prompted Agave to kill Pentheus. Polydorus then succeeded Pentheus as king of Thebes and married Nycteïs. When their son Labdacus was still young, Polydorus died of unknown causes, entrusting his father-in-law Nycteus to care the infant prince and to be his regent. In Pausanias's history, Polydorus' rule began when his father abdicated the throne and together with his mother Harmonia migrated to the Illyrian tribe of the Enchelii, but this is the only source for such a timeline. It is also said that along with the thunderbolt hurled at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euripides
Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the ''Suda'' says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (''Rhesus (play), Rhesus'' is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedMoses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. ixhe became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.L.P.E.Parker, ''Euripides: Alcestis'', Oxford University Press (2007), Introduction p. lx Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theban Kings In Greek Mythology
The dynastic history of Thebes in Greek mythology is crowded with a bewildering number of kings between the city's new foundation (by Cadmus) and the Trojan War (see Ogyges). This suggests several competing traditions, which mythographers were forced to reconcile.Hard, Robin; Rose, Herbert Jennings (2004). The mythical history of Thebes. In. ''The Routledge handbook of Greek mythology'', pp. 294 ff. Psychology Press, Overview The first kings of the Boeotia region (before Cadmus and the flood of Deucalion) were Calydnus and Ogyges (Ogygos). The first king of the settlement that would become Thebes was Cadmus, after whom the city was originally called Cadmeia. It only became known as Thebes during the reign of Amphion and Zethus, after the latter's wife Thebe. When Cadmus died, his son Polydorus was still a minor and hence Pentheus, a son of Cadmus' daughter Agave and one of the Spartoi, became king. He met a tragic end after falling foul of the young god Dionysus. Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spartoi
In Greek myth, dragon's teeth (, ''odontes (tou) drakontos'') feature prominently in the legends of the Phoenician prince Cadmus and in Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. In each case, the dragons are present and breathe fire. Their teeth, once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors. Myths Cadmus and the Spartoi Cadmus, the bringer of literacy and civilization, killed the sacred dragon that guarded the spring of Ares. According to the '' Bibliotheca'', Athena gave Cadmus half of the dragon's teeth, advising him to sow them. When he did, fierce armed men, known as Spartoi (Ancient Greek: Σπαρτοί, literal translation: "sown en, from σπείρω, ''speírō'', "to sow"), sprang up from the furrows. Cadmus threw a stone among them, because he feared them, and they, thinking that the stone had been thrown by one of the others, fought each other until only five of them remained — Echion (future father of Pentheus), Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor and Pelo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparagmos
''Sparagmos'' (, from σπαράσσω ''sparasso'', "tear, rend, pull to pieces") is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, usually in a Dionysian context. In Dionysian rite as represented in myth and literature, a living animal, or sometimes even a human being, is sacrificed by being dismembered. ''Sparagmos'' was frequently followed by omophagia (the eating of the raw flesh of the one dismembered). It is associated with the Maenads or Bacchantes, followers of Dionysus, and the Dionysian Mysteries. Examples of ''sparagmos'' appear in Euripides's play '' The Bacchae''. In one scene guards sent to control the Maenads witness them pulling a live bull to pieces with their hands. Later, after King Pentheus has banned the worship of Dionysus, the god lures him into a forest, to be torn limb from limb by Maenads, including his own mother Agave. According to some myths, Orpheus, regarded as a prophet of Orphic or Bacchic religion, died when he was dismembered by raging Thra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epirus (mythology)
Epirus or Epeiros (), in Greek mythology, was a member of the Theban royal family as the daughter of princess Agave and Echion, one of the Spartoi. She was the sister of Pentheus, successor of King Cadmus of Thebes. Mythology Epirus accompanied Cadmus and Harmonia while they were carrying the body of Pentheus. While in Epirus, she died and was buried in a thicket; this thicket was later considered sacred to her and the entire country was renamed after her. This same thicket was also considered the place where the king's son Cichyrus accidentally slew a young girl named Anthippe while hunting. In remorse he flung himself into a ravine and was killed. The king's people, the Chaonians, founded the city of Cichyrus Cichyrus (, ''Kichyros''), earlier called Ephyra (Ἐφύρα or Ἐφύρη), was the capital of ancient Thesprotia, according to the myth built by the Arcadian leader Thesprotos. Thucydides describes it as situated in the district Elaeatis ... around the ravine. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cadmus
In Greek mythology, Cadmus (; ) was the legendary Phoenician founder of Boeotian Thebes, Greece, Thebes. He was, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. Commonly stated to be a prince of Phoenicia, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre, the brother of Phoenix (son of Agenor), Phoenix, Cilix and Europa (consort of Zeus), Europa, Cadmus traced his origins back to Poseidon and Libya of Egypt, Libya. Originally, he was sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus. In early accounts, Cadmus and Europa were instead the children of Phoenix (son of Agenor), Phoenix.Scholia on Homer, ''Iliad'' B, 494, p. 80, 43 ed. Bekk. as cited in Hellanicus of Lesbos, Hellanicus' ''Boeotica'' Cadmus founded or refounded the Greek city of Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Echion
In Greek mythology, the name Echion (Ancient Greek: Ἐχῑ́ων (''gen''.: Ἐχίονος), derivative of ἔχις ''echis'' "viper") referred to five different beings: *Echion, one of the Gigantes, known for great strength (though not necessarily great size) and having an ability to change the course or direction of winds. *Echion, one of the surviving ''Spartoi'', the "sown men" that sprang up from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, the other four Spartoi were Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Udaeus. Echion was principally known for his skill in battle and bravery; "it was Echion who, for his great valor, was preferred by Cadmus to be his son-in-law": Echion was father of Pentheus and Epeiros by Agave. He was credited to be the founder of the Malian city of Echinos. Also, Echion was said to have dedicated a temple of Cybele in Boeotia, and to have assisted Cadmus in the building of Thebes. *Echion of Alope, son of Hermes and Antianeira (daughter of Menetus) or Lao ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Creation myth, creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. Although it meets some of the criteria for an epic poem, epic, the poem defies simple genre classification because of its varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry. Although some of the ''Metamorphoses'' derives from earlier treatment of the same myths, Ovid diverged significantly from all of his models. The ''Metamorphoses'' is one of the most influential works in Western culture. It has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in works ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
