Acoetes provides an opportunity for Pentheus to acknowledge the error of his ways and pay respect to the god. However, the adaptation of the myth and introduction of Acoetes adds a crucial new element. Ovid’s version of the story has many similarities with The Bacchae. Red-figure vase painting depicting the death of Pentheus, c.

His own mother, Agave, is the unsuspecting instigator of the tragic scene. Up in the mountains, he is mistaken by Bacchus’ ecstatic followers for a wild animal and is ripped limb from limb. Pentheus ignores Acoetes’ wise words and seeks out Bacchus for himself.

He has met those who did not treat Bacchus with due reverence and has seen them painfully turned into dolphins in front of his own eyes. As a foil to the arrogant and impious King Pentheus, Ovid presents the humble sea captain Acoetes, a loyal follower of the divine Bacchus.Īcoetes warns Pentheus with a cautionary tale. Ovid was clearly inspired by Euripides’ work but, ever the innovator, he added a whole new element to the story. The story of Pentheus and Bacchus was made famous in Classical Greece by the playwright Euripides, who wrote The Bacchae in the late 5th century BCE. He is intent on banishing all traces of Bacchus, whom he does not believe to be a true god.īacchus, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1638-1640, via Hermitage Museum When we meet Pentheus, he is outraged by the popularity of the cult of Bacchus, which is sweeping through Thebes. These moralizing tales can be found throughout Ovid’s Metamorphoses, no less so than in the story of Pentheus, King of Thebes. Often this truth comes in the form of an explanation for a natural phenomenon or a moral lesson to be learned. The majority of Greek myths have both a story to tell and a universal truth to reveal. Ovid’s poem contains over 250 tales, all of which are linked by the concept of metamorphosis-the changing of shape or form. Greek and Roman writers often incorporated myth into their work as its legendary status was associated with sophistication and a learned mind. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an epic poem heavily inspired by the stories of Greek mythology. Metamorphoses – Pentheus and Acoetes Fresco depicting Pentheus and the Bacchants, from Pompeii, 1st century CE, via National Archaeological Museum of Naples

Poet of metamorphoses