Pentheus (grief) In Greek mythology, king of Thebes, son of Echion and Agave. Pentheus refused to worship Dionysus and was killed when the god inspired a frenzy in his worshippers, the Bacchae. Believing Pentheus to be a wild boar, they tore him to pieces. The first to attack was Agave (highborn), his mother, followed by Pentheus’s two sisters, Ino and Autonoe. Euripides’ The Bacchae, Vergil’s Aeneid (book 4), and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 3) tell the tale.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante