Editing The Bacchae (section)

==Background==
[[File:Dionysos Mainades Cdm Paris 222.jpg|thumb|235x235px|Dionysus with two [[Maenad|Maenads]], female worshipers and part of [[Thiasus|his retinue]]. {{Circa|550–530 BC}}]]
The Dionysus in Euripides' tale is a young god, angry that his mortal family, the royal house of [[Cadmus]], has denied him a place of honor as a deity. His mortal mother, [[Semele]], was a mistress of [[Zeus]]; and while pregnant, was tricked by a jealous [[Hera]] to request Zeus to come to her in his true form. Being only a mortal, she was struck down by Zeus' thunderbolts while in his presence and was killed. Zeus then saved Dionysus, who was in Semele's womb, by sewing him into a cavity in his thigh. When Semele died, her sisters said it was Zeus' will and accused her of lying; they also accused their father, Cadmus, of claiming Semele was pregnant by Zeus to cover up an affair with a mortal man. Most of Semele's family refused to believe Dionysus was the son of Zeus, and the young god was spurned by his household. He traveled throughout [[Asia]] and other foreign lands, gathering a cult of female worshipers, the [[Maenad|Maenads]]. At the start of the play, Dionysus returns to Thebes, disguised as a stranger, to take revenge on the house of Cadmus. He has also driven the women of Thebes, including his aunts, into an ecstatic frenzy, sending them dancing and hunting on [[Cithaeron|Mount Cithaeron]], much to the horror of the young [[Pentheus]], king of Thebes who also is Dionysus' cousin. Complicating matters, Pentheus has declared a ban on the worship of Dionysus throughout Thebes.<ref>Euripides, ''Bacchae'', 1–64</ref>