Why does dionysus return to thebes

According to the cowherd, what comes out of the ground when the bacchants strike it? Blood Milk Milk, water, honey and wine Honey. According to the cowherd what do the bacchants plan to do when they find out he is spying on them?

Wait to see if he is male or female and then sing a gender appropriate song Invite him to join their feast Attack him and tear him to pieces Seduce him. What is the one forest creature closely associated with the bacchants? Lion Snake Fox Bull. How does Dionysus finally tempt Pentheus? With the possibility of watching the rites of the bacchants With the possibility of extending his kingdom With the possibility of killing the bacchants With the possibility of rescuing his mother.

What disguise must Pentheus wear when he leaves the city with Dionysus? He must dress as a deer He must dress as a male bacchant He must dress as a female bacchant He must dress as a shepherd. As Pentheus leaves the city, what does he see Dionysus turn into? A fawn A female bacchant A lion A bull.

What act does Pentheus's imagination dwell upon when he is about to spy on the bacchants? Love-making Tearing a heifer's body apart with their hands Drinking wine and dancing with abandon on the hill Suckling baby wolves. They are the only two men who have decided to participate in the rites of the new god; because of the other men, they fear that punishment will fall on Thebes.

Teiresias and Cadmus are both somewhat pathetic and vulnerable figures, old men surrounded by young, strong women. Pentheus enters, denouncing the new religion and the disorder it has brought to Thebes. He becomes infuriated when he sees Teiresias and Cadmus dressed like worshippers of Dionysus. Both men argue with the young king, defending the pragmatic wisdom of embracing the new religion. But Pentheus refuses to listen to them, and he becomes more determined than ever to put an end to the new cult.

He has heard that there is a priest who is at the center of the new religion, and Pentheus intends to have the man captured and possibly executed: the audience knows that this priest is Dionysus himself, disguised as a mortal. Attendants bring Dionysus, captive, to Pentheus. Pentheus interrogates Dionysus, who Pentheus thinks is a mortal man; Dionysus' answers are slippery and meant to madden the king.

He shaves away the god's curls and has him put in the dungeon. The Bacchae will be enslaved. Lightning strikes and there is a mighty earthquake: the royal palace of Thebes is completely destroyed. Dionysus emerges from the rubble, still disguised as a mortal; he speaks to the fearful Bacchae, telling them that the god has brought this destruction as punishment. Pentheus comes out from the rubble, outraged.

He means to punish the priest horribly. A messenger enters with terrifying news for Pentheus: the Maenads in the hills have powers beyond those of mortals. They have destroyed villages in the foothills, routing soldiers almost without effort. Pentheus means to take his best troops into the hills to make all-out war against the Maenads. But Dionysus calls out to him, asking him if he would like to see the women's revelry.

Dionysus suggests that the best way to do this is for Pentheus to disguise himself as a woman; Pentheus is upset at the idea, but agrees to consider it and exits Dionysus hints to the chorus of Pentheus' coming doom, and prays to himself to cloud Pentheus' mind The chorus sings an ode, longing to run wild and free again; beating an enemy is good; divine vengeance is slow but sure Dionysus returns with Pentheus in drag; Pentheus is zoned out and hallucinating.

Dionysus toys with him in seriocomic wise, sending him off to spy on the bacchants with ironic remarks about how his mother Agave will carry him home The chorus sings savagely of the vengeance to be taken upon the intruder; there is philosophical speculation on the nature of humility, and more bloodthirsty longings A messenger arrives to tell the chorus that Pentheus is dead; they react with glee.

The messenger describes how Pentheus, in the woods, climbed a tree so as to see the women better; then Dionysus called on his maenads, and they came after Pentheus; failing to dislodge him from the tree with missiles, they ripped down the tree and tore the king apart. In the lead was his mother Agave, so much in the grip of frenzy that she ignored his cries of 'mother'.

Agave is returning with the head of Pentheus on a stick; she thinks he was a lion The chorus celebrates the event. In order to protect his unborn son from Hera, Zeus stitched little Dionysus into his thigh until the child was ready to be born. Since Dionysus's birth, the rest of the royal family has denied that he's a god. Dionysus is now determined to show them all. He's started by turning his mother's sisters into the Maenads. The basic job description for a Maenad includes: dancing in the woods, drinking wine, breast feeding baby animals, and dismembering whoever gets in their way.

Dionysus summons the Chorus, a group of Asian female followers, to dance around the city and sing his glory, while he goes off to the mountains to frolic with the Maenads. Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and Tiresias, the famous seer, show up all decked out to worship Dionysus. The two old men are wise and know better than to trifle with a god. King Pentheus, Cadmus's grandson, storms on stage. He's incredibly mad about all the women dancing in the woods, especially since one of them is his own mother, Agave.

He declares that he'll stop the spread of this new and terrible religion no matter what. Tiresias and Cadmus tell him he'll be sorry, but the stubborn Pentheus doesn't listen.

Pentheus's men bring in a chained Dionysus. Of course, they have no idea that they've got the actual god on their hands, since Dionysus is in mortal form.