Editing Dionysus (section)

===Return to Greece===
[[File:Badakshan patera Triumph of Bacchus.jpg|thumb|left|[[Badakshan]] [[patera]], "Triumph of Bacchus" (first–fourth century).<ref>The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, Princeton University Press 1993, p.96</ref> [[British Museum]].]]
Returning in triumph to Greece after his travels in Asia, Dionysus came to be considered the founder of the triumphal procession. He undertook efforts to introduce his religion into Greece, but was opposed by rulers who feared it, on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it.

In one myth, adapted in [[Euripides]]' play ''[[The Bacchae]]'', Dionysus returns to his birthplace, [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]], which is ruled by his cousin [[Pentheus]]. Pentheus, as well as his mother [[Agave (Theban princess)|Agave]] and his aunts [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]] and [[Autonoe]], disbelieve Dionysus' divine birth. Despite the warnings of the blind prophet [[Tiresias]], they deny his worship and denounce him for inspiring the women of Thebes to madness.
[[File:Death Pentheus Louvre G445.jpg|thumb|right|Pentheus torn apart by Agave and Ino. Attic red-figure ''[[lekanis]]'' (cosmetics bowl) lid, c. 450–425 BC (Louvre)]]

Dionysus uses his divine powers to drive Pentheus insane, then invites him to spy on the ecstatic rituals of the [[Maenad]]s, in the woods of [[Mount Cithaeron]]. Pentheus, hoping to witness a sexual [[orgy]], hides himself in a tree. The Maenads spot him; maddened by Dionysus, they take him to be a mountain-dwelling [[lion]] and attack him with their bare hands. Pentheus' aunts and his mother Agave are among them, and they rip him limb from limb. Agave mounts his head on a pike and takes the trophy to her father Cadmus.

Euripides' description of this sparagmos was as follows:

{{quote|"But she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolled all around; her mind was mindless now. Held by the god, she paid the man no heed. She grabbed his left arm just below the elbow: wedging her foot against the victim's ribs she ripped his shoulder off – not by mere force; the god made easy everything they touch. On his right arm worked Ino, ripping flesh; Autonoë and the mob of maenads griped him, screaming as one. While he had breath, he cried, but they were whooping victory calls. One took an arm, a foot another, boot and all. They stripped his torso bare, staining their nails with blood, then tossed balls of flesh around. Pentheus' body lies in fragments now: on the hard rocks, and mingled with the leaves buried in the woodland, hard to find. His mother stumbled across his head: poor head! She grabbed it, and fixed it on her thyrsus, like a lions's, to wave in joyful triumph at her hunt."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eripides |title=Bacchae |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |year=2014 |pages=lines 112-1141 |translator-last=Robertson |translator-first=Robin}}</ref>}}

The madness passes. Dionysus arrives in his true, divine form, banishes Agave and her sisters, and transforms Cadmus and his wife [[Harmonia (mythology)|Harmonia]] into serpents. Only Tiresias is spared.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]''.</ref>

[[File:Lycurgus Cup red BM MME1958.12-2.1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Lycurgus of Thrace|Lycurgus]] trapped by the vine, on the [[Lycurgus Cup]]]]
In the Iliad, when King [[Lycurgus of Thrace]] heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus' followers, the [[Maenad]]s. Dionysus fled and took refuge with [[Thetis]], and sent a [[drought]] which stirred the people to revolt. The god then drove King Lycurgus insane and had him slice his own son into pieces with an axe in the belief that he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An [[oracle]] then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus lived, and his people had him [[drawn and quartered]]. Appeased by the king's death, Dionysus lifted the curse.<ref>{{Citation|author=Homer.|title=The Iliad|isbn=978-2-291-06449-7|oclc=1130228845}}</ref><ref>Homer, Iliad 6. 129 ff (trans. Lattimore):

"I will not fight against any god of the heaven, since even the son of Dryas, Lykourgos the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of Mainomenos (rapturous) Dionysos headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror dived into the salt surf, and Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers upon him at the man's blustering. But the gods who live at their ease were angered with Lykourgos and the son of Cronus [Zeus] struck him to blindness, nor did he live long afterwards, since he was hated by all the immortals."

[N.B. The reference to the Nyseian hill and the nurses of Dionysus suggests that Homer placed the story in Boeotia while the god was still a child—contrary to subsequent accounts of the myth in which Dionysus is a youth visiting Thrace.]</ref> In an alternative version, sometimes depicted in art, Lycurgus tries to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and slowly strangled him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/the_lycurgus_cup.aspx|title=British Museum – The Lycurgus Cup|website=Britishmuseum.org}}</ref>