Destruction Of Pentheus

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Evaluate and discuss the main causes of Pentheus’ destruction in Euripides’ Bacchae. A battle between man and God. A easy guess to who is going to win. Pentheus who was the son Echion and Agaue, learnt this the hard way. Pentheus was also entrusted with the authority of Thebes by Cadmus the founder of the city Thebans. Lets discuss the factors that may have led to the destruction of Pentheus. Could it have been Pentheus’ nature that led to his own destruction or Dionysus that led to the destruction of Pentheus? Was Dionysus over reacting to the fact that Pentheus could not recognise him or is it that Dionysus wanted Pentheus to die in order to teach other people what happens to the non believers or did he want people to know who he was and wanted them to really recognise him or was he taking revenge for all the insults to his mother? Pentheus was given signs but he choose to ignore them, if he had listened he could have survived. Was Pentheus doing what he thought was right for his city or was he simply just showing his authority? Did he feel threatened to the factor of a stranger coming and taking control? These are some questions that we will go through as we evaluate and discuss this essay. Firstly lets look at the character of Dionysus, he is the son of Zeus. He is the God of intoxication and his the wine. The god of agriculture, fertility of nature and who taught how to turn grape juice into wine. Dionysus also represents sexual drive and pleasure as this is shown through the male followers called satyrs. Dionysus was also sometimes at the heart of frenzied madness. Dionysus was not the God of all of this but he was all of this. Could the stubbornness of Pentheus driven Dionysus into madness that he took hard measures upon Pentheus. Dionysus has come to Thebes to make sure that he his known by all and also to take revenge on his family who insulted

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