A King of Thebes who banned the worship of Dionysus in his kingdom. Pentheus was ironically the nephew to the mother of Dionysus, Semele herself. Needless to say, she did not take this lightly. The women of the city, including Pentheus' aunt and mother went into into a Bacchic frenzy, basically losing themselves to madness and violence. Dionysus himself was caught and attempted to be jailed, being mistaken for a simple mortal follower, but he was unable to be chained and was released. He learns of the banishment of his own worship and plots his revenge. He then lured Pentheus to go spy on the Bacchic rituals, where he was spotted hiding in a tree. Myth says the women pulled him from the tree and his own mother ripped off one of his arms and then beheaded him.