Agave (Daughter of Cadmus)

In Greek mythology, Agave (/ˈæɡəvi/; Ancient Greek: Ἀγαύη, romanized: Agaúē, lit. 'illustrious') was a princess of Thebes and the queen of the Maenads.

Family

Agave was the eldest daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters were Autonoë, Ino and Semele, and her brother was Polydorus.[1] She married Echion, one of the five Spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of Thebes. She also had a daughter, Epirus. She was the queen of the Maenads, followers of Dionysus (also known as Bacchus).

Mythology

In Euripides' play, The Bacchae, Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysus because he denied Dionysus' divinity. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, lured Pentheus to the woods—Pentheus wanted to see what he thought were the sexual activities of the women—where the Maenads tore him apart and his corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave. Agave and Pentheus' aunt, Autonoe, tore his limb from limb in a Bacchic frenzy. [2] Thinking that she and the other women had just killed a lion—for Dionysus had driven them mad—Agave carried her son's head on a stick back to Thebes, only realizing the truth when confronted by her father, Cadmus.

This murder also served as Dionysus' vengeance on Agave (and her sisters Ino and Autonoë). Semele, during her pregnancy with Dionysus, was destroyed by the sight of the splendor of Zeus. Her sisters spread the report that she had only endeavored to conceal unmarried sex with a mortal man, by pretending that Zeus was the father of her child, and said 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 to Thebes and sent the Theban women mad, compelling them to celebrate his Dionysiac festivals on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus, wishing to prevent or stop these riotous proceedings, was persuaded by a disguised Dionysus to go himself to Cithaeron, but was torn to pieces there by his own mother Agave, who in her frenzy believed him to be a wild lion.[3]

For this transgression, according to Hyginus,[4] Agave was exiled from Thebes and fled to Illyria to marry King Lycotherses, and then killed him in order to gain the city for her father Cadmus. According to Smith, Hyginus' account is "manifestly transplaced by Hyginus, and must have belonged to an earlier part of the story of Agave".[5]
Genealogy
Argive genealogy in Greek mythology

Inachus

Melia

Zeus

Phoroneus

Epaphus

Memphis

Libya

Poseidon

Belus

Achiroë

Agenor

Telephassa

Danaus

Pieria

Aegyptus

Cadmus

Cilix

Europa

Phoenix

Mantineus

Hypermnestra

Lynceus

Harmonia

Zeus

Polydorus

Sparta

Lacedaemon

Ocalea

Abas

Agave

Sarpedon

Rhadamanthus

Autonoë

Eurydice

Acrisius

Ino

Minos

Zeus

Danaë

Semele

Zeus

Perseus

Dionysus

Family tree of the Theban royal house
Royal house of Thebes family tree

Solid lines indicate descendants.
Dashed lines indicate marriages.
Dotted lines indicate extra-marital relationships or adoptions.
Kings of Thebes are numbered with bold names and a light purple background.
Joint rules are indicated by a number and lowercase letter, for example, 5a. Amphion shared the throne with 5b. Zethus.
Regents of Thebes are alphanumbered (format AN) with bold names and a light red background.
The number N refers to the regency preceding the reign of the Nth king. Generally this means the regent served the Nth king but not always, as Creon (A9) was serving as regent to Laodamas (the 10th King) when he was slain by Lycus II (the usurping 9th king).
The letter A refers to the regency sequence. "A" is the first regent, "B" is the second, etc.
Deities have a yellow background color and italic names.

Harmonia

1.
Cadmus

Polyxo

A4.
Nycteus (Regent)

Dirce

B4 & A6.
Lycus (Regent)

Zeus

Ino

Agave

Echion

3.
Polydorus

Nycteis

Antiope

Semele

Autonoë

Dionysus

2.
Pentheus

Epeiros

4.
Labdacus

5a.
Amphion

5b.
Zethus

Menoeceus

Eurydice

A7, A8 & A9.
Creon (Regent)

Jocasta

6.
Laius

Merope

Polybus

Hipponome

Alcaeus

Zeus

Alcmene

Amphitryon

Perimede

7.
Oedipus

Megara

Heracles

Iphicles

Anaxo

Henioche

Megareus

Haemon

Antigone

8b.
Eteocles

Argea

8a.
Polynices

Pyrrha

Lycomedes

Ismene

9.
Lycus II

A12.
Peneleos (Regent)

10.
Laodamas

Demonassa

11.
Thersander

Opheltes

12.
Tisamenus

14.
Damasichthon

13.
Autesion

15.
Ptolemy

Theras

Argeia

Aristodemus

16.
Xanthos

Eurysthenes

Procles

Notes

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2.
Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology., p. 41, at Google Books
Apollodorus, 3.5.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.725.
Hyginus, Fabulae 184 Archived 2014-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, 240, 254.

Smith, "Agave" .

Sources

Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Agave"