Dionysus’ Victim: The Pentheus Myth beyond Euripides

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This book investigates ancient texts of culture about Pentheus. It includes a section devoted to the rigorous Quellenforschung and a detailed analysis of the stylistic and thematic features of each of them. The results of the author’s inquiry are original and thought provoking as he argues that in the vast majority of cases the scholarly tradition, according to which authors engaged in a direct intertextual dialogue with Euripides, is not tenable. Having established this, the author turns to specific features of each text and image in order to inquire about the meaning and function that Pentheus’ myth played in them.
Copyright Year:
2026
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74653-4
Publication:
04 Nov 2025
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74386-1
Publication:
13 Nov 2025
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Bartłomiej Bednarek, Ph.D. (2015) is Assistant Professor at Charles University in Prague. He has published books and articles on Greek Religion, especially on Dionysus, including The Myth of Lycurgus in Aeschylus, Naevius, and Beyond (Brill 2021).
Acknowledgments
List of Figures

1 Introduction
 1 Why Dionysus? Why Euripides’ Bacchae?
 2 The Bacchae and the Aeneid: a case study of a skeleton in the closet
 3 Conclusions: Why is this book necessary?
 4 What this book is about

2 Pentheus before Euripides
 1 Pentheus in the poetic tradition before Aeschylus
 2 Pentheus in Aeschylus
 3 The Pentheus myth in ‘minor tragedians’ ’ plays
 4 Conclusions of the chapter

3 Iconography
 1 Attic vases from 520/10–410 BCE
 2 Attic vases from the last decade of the fifth century BCE and related vessels
 3 Images influenced by Euripides
 4 What do we learn from Pentheus’ iconography?
 5 Appendix: Dubious and false

4 Traces of non-Attic traditions
 1 Theocritus’ Idyll 26
 2 Ps.-Oppian’s Cynegetica 4.230–353
 3 Golden silence of Philodamus of Scarphea
 4 Conclusions
 5 Appendix: Traces of Boeotian traditions

5 Pentheus’ myth in Roman poetry
 1 Pentheus in Roman tragedies
 2 The Roman Principate
 3 Euripides’ tragedy of Agaue among Roman poets
 4 Conclusions

6 The long shadow of Euripides
 1 Reperformances and readership of Euripides’ Bacchae
 2 Mythography
 3 Nonnus, Dionysiaca 44–46
 4 Strategies of appropriation: Christus patiens and its Christian predecessors
 5 Conclusions of the chapter

7 What is Pentheus’ myth about?
 1 Ino as an archetypal Bacchant
 2 Ino among her sisters and other maenads
 3 Sea sanctuary
 4 Good maenads in the Bacchae
 5 How the perspective shifts

Bibliography
Index
Scholars and graduate students interested in ancient literature (especially drama/theatre) and ancient religion, ancient art, history of ideas, cultural anthropology.
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