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he was planning how he might kill Pentheus; and having armed himself, he sent for Agave, and asked that she be reconciled with Pentheus and go with him to Cadmus. And she, having done much for Pentheus, her own son, persuaded him to be reconciled with him and go to Cadmus, because he was grieved with them, with Agave having arranged to go with them and persuade her own father. But Dionysus was angry at Pentheus, as having been bound and reviled by him; for he was telling everyone that this Dionysus was born of fornication. For this reason also Euripides, after some time, having found such a text of the Bacchae, produced a drama, as if saying these things from Pentheus: Semele, lo 44 having been impregnated by some mortal, brings the sin to Zeus, he says. And when they were reconciled, Dionysus ordered his own army to get ahead on the road in a narrow place and seize Pentheus. And when they were about to go out with a few men, Dionysus came to him; and so Pentheus, unaware of the plot, himself also took a few men with him; and Agave was with them. And as they were going away, the army of Dionysus fell upon him, and they seized Pentheus; and immediately Dionysus ordered him to be beheaded, and his head to be given to his mother, since she was insulting this Dionysus. And Dionysus returned to the Cadmeia to rule as king. For this reason they say that Agave beheaded her own son, because she persuaded Pentheus to be reconciled with Dionysus and became the cause of the death of her own son. Therefore, the senators and citizens of the city of Cadmeia did not accept this Dionysus to administer their kingdom, saying that he had murdered his own cousin without being king; if he becomes king, he will destroy Boeotia. And they urged on Lycurgus, a wise man, having summoned him, telling him what had happened. And he armed himself against him, and cast him out of the city of Cadmeia and of Boeotia. And when Dionysus learned this, that he had armed himself against him, 45 he fled from Lycurgus; and having gone to Delphi, he died there. And the remains of this Dionysus were placed there in a coffin; and he himself hung up his weapons there in the temple, as the most wise Deinarchus wrote concerning this Dionysus. Likewise also the most wise Philochorus wrote the same things, in which exposition he said concerning this Dionysus, it is possible to see his tomb in Delphi beside the golden Apollo. The coffin is supposed to be a kind of pedestal, on which is written, 'Here lies dead Dionysus, son of Semele.' Similarly, the most wise Cephalion also set forth the same things in his own writing. Therefore, after the death of Cadmus, king of Boeotia, Nycteus became king. This man had a daughter, a priestess of the temple of Helios, named Antiope; who was taught the solar prayer, that is, the initiation into the Dionysiac revelries, and from there she was called a bacchant. And her father, Nycteus, had a brother named Lycus, king of Argos; which King Lycus had a senator named Theoboos, who was the son of a certain Brontonus, the cousin of Dirce, descended from the race of Picus Zeus. And this senator Theoboos, having come by command from Argos to sleep in the temple of Helios, and having seen the priestess Antiope, who was most comely and tall, was struck 46 with love for her. And remaining in the temple on the pretext of the order of prayer, as her kinsman, having deceived her he seduced her and made her pregnant; and fearing Nycteus, king of Boeotia, he departed to his own country. But when King Nycteus, her father, learned that she had been seduced, he took her from the temple; and having examined her he learned from her that the seducer was Theoboos, that he was one of the senators of his brother Lycus and of his

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ἐβουλεύετο πῶς ἀνέλῃ τὸν Πενθέα· καὶ ὁπλισάμενος μετεστείλατο τὴν Ἀγαύην, καὶ ᾔτησε φιλιωθῆναι αὐτὴν τῷ Πενθεῖ καὶ ἅμα αὐτῷ ἀπελθεῖν πρὸς τὸν Κάδμον. ἡ δὲ πολλὰ ποιήσασα τῷ Πενθεῖ, τῷ ἑαυτῆς υἱῷ, ἔπεισεν αὐτὸν φιλιωθῆναι αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπελθεῖν πρὸς τὸν Κάδμον, ὅτι ἐλυπήθη πρὸς αὐτούς, τῆς Ἀγαύης συνταξαμένης ἅμα αὐτοῖς ἀπιέναι καὶ πείθειν τὸν ἴδιον πατέρα. ὁ δὲ ∆ιόνυσος ὠργίζετο κατὰ τοῦ Πενθέως, ὡς δεθεὶς καὶ λοιδορούμενος παρ' αὐτοῦ· ἔλεγε γὰρ πᾶσιν ὅτι ἐκ πορνείας ἐτέχθη ὁ αὐτὸς ∆ιόνυσος. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ὁ Εὐριπίδης μετὰ χρόνους εὑρηκὼς τὸ τοιοῦτον σύγγραμμα τῶν Βακχῶν ἐξέθετο δρᾶμα, ὡς ἀπὸ Πενθέως εἰπὼν ταῦτα· Σεμέλη δὲ λο 44 χευθεῖσα ἐκ βροτοῦ τινος εἰς Ζῆνα φέρουσα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν λέγει. φιλιωθέντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἐκέλευσε τῷ ἰδίῳ στρατῷ ὁ ∆ιόνυσος προλαβεῖν κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν ἐν στενῷ τόπῳ καὶ συσχεῖν τὸν Πενθέα. ἐν δὲ τῷ μέλλειν αὐτοὺς ἐξιέναι μετὰ ὀλίγων ἀνδρῶν ἦλθεν ὁ ∆ιόνυσος πρὸς αὐτόν· καὶ λοιπὸν ὁ Πενθεύς, ἀγνοῶν τὸ σκέμμα, καὶ αὐτὸς ὀλίγους μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ ἔλαβεν ἄνδρας· καὶ ἡ Ἀγαύη ἦν μετ' αὐτῶν. ἐν δὲ τῷ αὐτοὺς ἀπιέναι ἐπέῤῥιψεν αὐτῷ ὁ στρατὸς τοῦ ∆ιονύσου, καὶ συνέσχον τὸν Πενθέα· καὶ εὐθέως ἐκέλευσεν ὁ ∆ιόνυσος ἀποτμηθῆναι αὐτόν, καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν δοθῆναι τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ, ὡς ὑβριζούσῃ τὸν αὐτὸν ∆ιόνυσον. καὶ ὑπέστρεψεν ὁ ∆ιόνυσος εἰς τὴν Καδμείαν εἰς τὸ βασιλεῦσαι. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ λέγουσι τὴν Ἀγαύην ἀποκεφαλίσασαν τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῆς υἱόν, διότι ἔπεισε τὸν Πενθέα φιλιωθῆναι τῷ ∆ιονύσῳ καὶ αἰτία γέγονε τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ ἰδίου αὐτῆς υἱοῦ. οἱ οὖν συγκλητικοὶ καὶ πολῖται τῆς Καδμείας πόλεως οὐκ ἐδέξαντο τὸν αὐτὸν ∆ιόνυσον διοικῆσαι τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτῶν, λέγοντες ὅτι τὸν ἴδιον ἐξάδελφον ἐφόνευσε μὴ ὢν βασιλεύς· ἐὰν βασιλεύσῃ, ἀπολεῖ τὴν Βοιωτίαν. καὶ προετρέψαντο παρακαλέσαντες τὸν Λυκοῦργον, ἄνδρα σοφόν, εἰπόντες αὐτῷ τὰ συμβάντα. καὶ ὡπλίσατο κατ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκβάλλει αὐτὸν ἐκ τῆς Καδμείας πόλεως καὶ τῆς Βοιωτίας. καὶ γνοὺς τοῦτο ὁ ∆ιόνυσος, ὅτι ὡπλίσατο κατ' αὐτοῦ, 45 ἔφυγε τὸν Λυκοῦργον· καὶ εἰς ∆ελφοὺς ἀπελθὼν ἐκεῖ τελευτᾷ. καὶ ἐτέθη τὸ λείψανον τοῦ αὐτοῦ ∆ιονύσου ἐκεῖ ἐν σορῷ· καὶ τὰ ὅπλα δὲ αὐτοῦ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖ εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἐκρέμασε, καθὼς ∆είναρχος ὁ σοφώτατος συνεγράψατο περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ∆ιονύσου. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ὁ σοφώτατος Φιλόχορος τὰ αὐτὰ συνεγράψατο, ἐν ᾗ ἐκθέσει εἶπε περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ∆ιονύσου, ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τὴν ταφὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν ∆ελφοῖς παρὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα τὸν χρυσοῦν. βάθρον δέ τι εἶναι ὑπονοεῖται ἡ σορός, ἐν ᾧ γράφεται, Ἐνθάδε κεῖται θανὼν ∆ιόνυσος ἐκ Σεμέλης. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ὁ σοφώτατος Κεφαλίων τὰ αὐτὰ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ συγγράμματι ἐξέθετο. Μετὰ οὖν τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ Κάδμου, βασιλέως τῆς Βοιωτίας, ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ Νυκτεύς. οὗτος ἔχει θυγατέρα, ἱέρειαν τοῦ ναοῦ Ἡλίου, ὀνόματι Ἀντιόπην· ἥτις ἐδιδάχθη τὴν ἡλιακὴν εὐχήν, ἤτοι μυσταγωγίαν τῶν ∆ιονυσιακῶν βακχευμάτων, κἀκεῖθεν ἐλέγετο βάκχη. ὁ δὲ αὐτῆς πατήρ, ὁ Νυκτεύς, εἶχεν ἀδελφὸν ὀνόματι Λύκον, βασιλέα τοῦ Ἄργους· ὅστις Λύκος βασιλεὺς εἶχε συγκλητικὸν ὀνόματι Θεόβοον, υἱὸν γενόμενον Βρόντονός τινος, ἐξαδέλφου τῆς ∆ίρκης, ἐκ τοῦ γένους τοῦ Πίκου ∆ιὸς καταγομένου. ὁ αὐτὸς δὲ Θεόβοος ὁ συγκλητικὸς κατὰ τάγμα ἐλθὼν ἐκ τοῦ Ἄργους ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τοῦ Ἡλίου παρακοιμηθῆναι, καὶ ἑωρακὼς τὴν ἱέρειαν Ἀντιόπην, εὐπρεπεστάτην οὖσαν καὶ εὐμήκη, ἐβλήθη 46 εἰς ἔρωτα αὐτῆς. καὶ παραμείνας ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ προφάσει τοῦ τάγματος τῆς εὐχῆς, ὡς συγγενὴς αὐτῆς, ὑπονοθεύσας ἔφθειρεν αὐτὴν καὶ ἔγκυον ἐποίησε· καὶ φοβηθεὶς τὸν Νυκτέα, βασιλέα τῆς Βοιωτίας, ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτοῦ χώραν. μαθὼν δὲ ὁ Νυκτεὺς βασιλεύς, ὁ ταύτης πατήρ, ὅτι ἐφθάρη, ἔλαβεν αὐτὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ· καὶ ἐξετάσας αὐτὴν ἔμαθε παρ' αὐτῆς τὸν φθορέα Θεόβοον ὅτι ἐκ τῶν συγκλητικῶν ἐστι τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ Λύκου καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ