ABSTRACT
A daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia; wife of Echion and mother of Pentheus. Her sister Semele was the mother of Dionysus by a miraculous birth in which she perished. But Agave and her sisters, Ino and Autonoe, refused to recognise Dionysus and mocked Semele’s claims. For this, when Dionysus and his Maenads visited Thebes, they were punished with madness: and Agave tore her own son Pentheus to pieces when he spied on their revels. This is the theme of Euripides’ Bacchants.
