- Agave (mythology)
In
Greek mythology , Agave (or Agaue, English translation: "illustrious") was the daughter ofCadmus , the king and founder of the city ofThebes ,Greece , and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters wereAutonoë , Ino andSemele . [Apollodorus , iii. 4. § 2] She marriedEchion , one of the fivespartoi , and was the mother ofPentheus , a king of Thebes. She also had a daughter Epirus. She was aMaenad , a follower ofDionysus (also known as Bacchus inRoman mythology ).In
Euripides 's play, "The Bacchae ", Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysos because he denied Dionysus' divinity. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the Maenads tore him apart and his corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave.In another version of the story, Semele, during her
pregnancy with Dionysus, was destroyed by the sight of the splendor ofZeus . Her sisters spread the report that she had only endeavored to conceal her guilt, by pretending that Zeus was the father of her child, and that her destruction was a just punishment for her falsehood. This calumny was afterwards most severely avenged upon Agave. For, after Dionysus, the son of Semele, had traversed the world, he came toThebes and compelled the women to celebrate his Dionysiac festivals on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus, wishing to prevent or stop these riotous proceedings, went himself to Cithaeron, but was torn to pieces there by his own mother Agave, who in her frenzy believed him to be a wild beast. [Apollodorus , iii. 5. § 2] [Ovid , "Metamorphoses " iii. 725]For either of these transgressions, according to Hyginus, [Hyginus, "Fabulae" 240, 254] Agave was exiled from
Thebes and fled toIllyria to marry King Lycotherses, and then killed him in order to gain the city for her father Cadmus. This account, however, is manifestly transplaced by Hyginus, and must have belonged to an earlier part of the story of Agave.Citation
last = Schmitz
first = Leonhard
author-link =
contribution = Agave
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 1
pages = 66-67
publisher =
place = Boston
year = 1867
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0075.html ]Other characters
Agave is also the name of three more minor characters in Greek mythology.
*Agave, one of the
Nereids . [Apollodorus . "Library", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#2 1.2.7] ] [Homer . "Iliad", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerIliad18.html 18.35] ] [Hesiod . "Theogony", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html 240] ] [Hyginus . "Fabulae", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html Preface] .]*Agave, one of the
Danaids , daughter ofDanaus and Europa. She marriedLycus , son ofAegyptus andArgyphia . [Apollodorus. "Library", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html 2.1.5] .]*Agave, an Amazon. [Hyginus. "Fabulae", [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae4.html#163 163] .]
References
ources
*SmithDGRBM
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.