Speaker 1: Oh well, hello, there have you been. What's new? This
Speaker 1: is let's talk about Miths Baby and Live your a
Speaker 1: friendly neighborhood mythology nerd. It's been a while since I've
Speaker 1: done a mini myth. I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that these will be on a bit of a bonus
Speaker 1: type schedule, in that I don't often have the time
Speaker 1: or energy, but when I do, i'll release one just
Speaker 1: you know, like a bonus. So that's where we're at
Speaker 1: this week, because I thought, hey, Live, you've been too
Speaker 1: lazy lately, get your ship together and release a mini myth.
Speaker 1: And so I am. There is construction going on at
Speaker 1: my building, and so I apologize if there are bumps
Speaker 1: in the night mini myth. Don't mess with the god
Speaker 1: of Wine, duh. Now bring yourself back in time to
Speaker 1: when I've just done that first Cadmus episode, because frankly,
Speaker 1: that's when I should have released this one, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: This story comes from another of the trio of surviving
Speaker 1: ancient Greek dramatists or that word that I couldn't say
Speaker 1: last week, so I won't try again. Their ancient Greece's
Speaker 1: writers of tragedy tragedians. There look I kind of did it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why that word is so hard. It's
Speaker 1: not a hard word. It's spelled totally normally anyway. In
Speaker 1: this case, this myth comes from a play by Euripides. Now,
Speaker 1: from what I recall of my foray into the ancient
Speaker 1: Greek plays and university, Euripides is known for being a
Speaker 1: bit darker than his fellow dramatists Sophocles and east Calls. Now,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned back in that Cadmus episode, Cadmus and
Speaker 1: Harmonia had a collection of children. The story revolves around
Speaker 1: their three surviving daughters, particularly Agave. That's right, that's spelled
Speaker 1: like the tequila plant. Aga is the mother of Pentheus,
Speaker 1: who rules as king of Thebes after Cadmus relinquished his throne.
Speaker 1: I don't totally understand why Cadmus is no longer king
Speaker 1: at this point. Um, he's still in the story, so
Speaker 1: he hasn't turned himself into a snake yet, but he's
Speaker 1: just old and not king anymore. Such as Greek mythology.
Speaker 1: Of course, none of Cadmus is three daughters rule the city,
Speaker 1: because that would be crazy. Now, if you'll recall Agave,
Speaker 1: sister Semeily is also the mother of the god Dionysus
Speaker 1: via a stupid decision by Zeus. Chronology and aging is
Speaker 1: relative in ancient Greek myths. Keep that in mind. Um,
Speaker 1: So we're back in create post Cadmus and Harmonia. Pentheus
Speaker 1: rules the city and Semily's sisters have been trash talking
Speaker 1: her even though she's dead, which seems pretty shitty and
Speaker 1: I'm willing to bet it was an invention of a man.
Speaker 1: Apparently have been saying that they don't believe that Dionysus
Speaker 1: is in fact the son of Zeus, which frankly was
Speaker 1: how family got killed in the first place by doubting
Speaker 1: that Zeus was indeed Zeus. Great idea, guys, do you
Speaker 1: learn nothing? Anyway? Dionysus shows up in Thebes to avenge
Speaker 1: this slander, which honestly sounds like a bit of an overreaction,
Speaker 1: but what can you do. He shows up, and the
Speaker 1: way he plans to avenge is to introduce the Dionysian
Speaker 1: rights to the city of Thebes, which I think really
Speaker 1: says something about the people who worship Dionysus. It's a
Speaker 1: revenge anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself by introducing Dionysian
Speaker 1: rights into the city. He plans to prove to King
Speaker 1: Pentheus and to the city of Thebes itself that he
Speaker 1: is indeed the son of Zeus and a god himself.
Speaker 1: Dionysius is in Thebes telling everyone what's going on. He
Speaker 1: says that he's come to prove his point, and in
Speaker 1: that mission, he's driven all the women in the city mad,
Speaker 1: which is super chill of him. This would include his
Speaker 1: three and who have been bad mouthing his mom and
Speaker 1: his method of conception slash birth. Those ants would be
Speaker 1: a tawnoi agave, and I know he's driven them cray.
Speaker 1: And now they're up in the mountains and observing the
Speaker 1: ritual festivities that go along with the worshiping Dionysus. Women
Speaker 1: who worship Dionysus and do this crazy ship are called
Speaker 1: main ads. Oh and if I haven't already said, Dionysius
Speaker 1: is the god of wine and basically partying in general,
Speaker 1: So you can see how his rituals might get a
Speaker 1: bit out of control. The Roman name for Dionysus is Bacchus,
Speaker 1: and that's where we get the term bacchanalia, which is
Speaker 1: basically the ritual surrounding Bacchus or Dionysus drunkenness. So after
Speaker 1: dropping all these juicy details about himself and the fate
Speaker 1: of all the females, Dionysus leaves and heads off to
Speaker 1: the mountains to chill with his main ads. This is
Speaker 1: when our old friend Tyreseus enters. Now again, this is play,
Speaker 1: so the story is structured that way. Also, Tyreseus is
Speaker 1: apparently immortal because Oedipus came a few generations after Cadmus,
Speaker 1: and so the idea that Tyresus is here now and
Speaker 1: elderly means he basically never ages or dies. Anyway, Tyresees
Speaker 1: rolls up and he asked for Cadmus. They plan to
Speaker 1: join in on the bacchanali at taking place in the mountains.
Speaker 1: They're looking for a little old man excitement. But then
Speaker 1: Pentheus shows up, and he's not psyched to see his
Speaker 1: grandfather and old Tyreseus all dolled up ready for a party.
Speaker 1: He tells them off and he orders his soldiers to
Speaker 1: look for anyone engaging in worship of Dionysus there to
Speaker 1: be arrested. He's banned the worship entirely. Still not acknowledging
Speaker 1: that Dionysius is in fact his cousin and a god. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't get why they don't believe the Dionysius is
Speaker 1: a god. They probably could have looked to the fact
Speaker 1: that his aunt burst into flames after being impregnated with Dionysus,
Speaker 1: and that Zeus the obvious father then just stated him
Speaker 1: in his thigh. But he may have just not wanted
Speaker 1: to believe that his cousin was a god. Can you do?
Speaker 1: Pentheuss soldiers find Dionysus and he's but he's disguising himself.
Speaker 1: So Pentheus thinks he's just a mysterious stranger causing trouble,
Speaker 1: not that he's this guy claiming to be a god
Speaker 1: and his cousin. Pentheus has him locked up when he
Speaker 1: won't answer questions about Dionysian rites. Of course, Dionysus is
Speaker 1: a god, so he pretty easily breaks free from this
Speaker 1: and kind of loses his ship. He overreacts, let's be clear,
Speaker 1: He raises the palace with a fire at an earthquake.
Speaker 1: Like I said, overreaction. Dionysus is confronting Pentheus after this overreaction,
Speaker 1: when a herdsman rolls up from the nearby mountains where
Speaker 1: all the shenanigans are happening. He says that he saw
Speaker 1: some ladies acting a bit troubling. See some were sleeping
Speaker 1: or drinking wine and listening to music roll trouble, but
Speaker 1: some were headed into the woods quote in Pursuit of love.
Speaker 1: We all know that's troubling. Ladies can't be like in sex,
Speaker 1: no surrey. But some well, some women were putting snakes
Speaker 1: in their hair or suckling wolves and gazelles. This is
Speaker 1: perhaps a bit weirder. This herdsman and his pals had
Speaker 1: apparently tried to be super creepy and inappropriate. They tried
Speaker 1: to capture one of these ladies doing the weird stuff,
Speaker 1: specifically a gove Pentheus's mom. They tried to get to
Speaker 1: her by jumping out from behind bushes and grabbing her.
Speaker 1: But these ladies aren't taken that ship. The men escaped,
Speaker 1: but their cattle were left behind, and the women tore
Speaker 1: them to pieces with their bare hands. Because they're awesome,
Speaker 1: if a bit gross. Now they do a bunch of
Speaker 1: other crazy stuff, making it pretty clear they're just straight
Speaker 1: up possessed. So Pentheus and the people of thieves are
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the hell to do. Dionysius
Speaker 1: convinces Pentheus that maybe the best bet isn't a straight
Speaker 1: up massacre of basically all the women in town. That
Speaker 1: might be a bit much. Instead, he suggests that they
Speaker 1: spy on the women. This is, of course, Dionysus is
Speaker 1: still in disguise as a random foreigner, so Pentheus doesn't
Speaker 1: know that it's Dionysius himself trying to bend the plan
Speaker 1: of action in his favor. They dress up Pentheus as
Speaker 1: a main ad so he can sneak in and watch.
Speaker 1: It seems that as soon as Pentheus is dressed up
Speaker 1: as one um, he begins to turn into one too,
Speaker 1: including the crazy He starts seeing things, thinking he has
Speaker 1: crazy powers. Dionysus leads Pentheus up into the mountains and
Speaker 1: helps him into a tree to hide and watch the ladies.
Speaker 1: Then he reveals who he is and quickly points out
Speaker 1: the man hidden as a woman in the tree to
Speaker 1: his collection of possessed women. Leads the group. They track
Speaker 1: Pentheus and then proceed to rip off all his limbs
Speaker 1: and eventually his head, and then he's you know, a
Speaker 1: gross massive pieces of parson. Agave then returns to town
Speaker 1: carrying her son's head. She's still possessed, and she thinks
Speaker 1: they've just killed a mountain lion. She brings it to
Speaker 1: Cadmus and presents it proudly, like, look at what I got.
Speaker 1: This is another instance where Cadmus wonders what the fuck
Speaker 1: has happened to his family. He's not thrilled, and Agave
Speaker 1: is confused why he's not psyched to see her mountain
Speaker 1: lion head, so she calls her son Pentheus to come
Speaker 1: take a look at her trophy. Slowly, though Dionysus, his
Speaker 1: possession starts to wear off, and Cadmus forces her to
Speaker 1: realize what she's actually holding, and her sisters are exiled
Speaker 1: from thebes and Dionysus decides that Cadmus and Harmonia will
Speaker 1: be turned into snakes, which is actually the first time
Speaker 1: I've heard that version of why they end up at snakes.
Speaker 1: As far as I knew before, it was elective always learning,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, Well, there you have it. That's the
Speaker 1: super lighthearted and fun story of the play The Back
Speaker 1: Eye by Euripides. It's the the main ads those crazy
Speaker 1: badass ladies who do some major damage as usual. Um
Speaker 1: I love you would write and review on iTunes. It
Speaker 1: makes me super happy and it really helps people find
Speaker 1: the podcast. Thanks as always, I'm live and man do
Speaker 1: I love this ship.