Agave

Agave is daughter to Cadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes, and mother to Pentheus, the city's current ruler. As revealed by Dionysus in the play's prologue, Agave insulted the god by saying he was not the son of Zeus; that Semele, Dionysus's mother and Agave's own sister, lied about her lover, who was actually some mortal. For her heresy, Dionysus has driven Agave, and all the women of Thebes, mad and sent them into the hills where they have been wearing animal skins, dancing, and singing hymns of praise to the god of wine and revelry. Near the end of the play, Agave, still in a mad frenzy, leads the women in a bloody attack on Pentheus, her own son, who she mistakes for a mountain lion. She returns to Thebes triumphant, carrying her son's head as a trophy. Cadmus finally breaks the spell she has...