OCTOBER 12, 2000-MARCH 25, 2001 THE BACCHAE: A SYNOPSIS THE ANDERSEN WINDOW GALLERY
	Dionysus is twice born--first of the dead Semele, daughter of Cadmus, then king of Thebes, and again from the thigh of Zeus, Semele's lover. He grows up to become the god of revelry, wine, and bodily fluids. However, the people of Thebes and King Pentheus, grandson of Cadmus, refuse to believe he is the son of Zeus and indeed a god. One group of women does engage in orgiastic and frenzied rites to Dionysus in the hills of Thebes, thus enraging Pentheus, who orders the arrest of a mysterious stranger, a priest of the cult--Dionysus in disguise.
	As the women, joined by Agave, the mother of Pentheus, and her sisters, continue to revel in the hills, Pentheus humiliates the disguised Dionysus. The angered god predicts catastrophe for Pentheus and proceeds to trick the king into dressing in women's clothes so that he can spy on the women. As Pentheus watches from a tree branch, Dionysus reveals the intruder in their midst. The frenzied women, in a Bacchic trance that makes them see Pentheus as a lion, shake him down from the tree. Agave then leads them in ripping her son Pentheus to pieces, then displaying his severed head on a stake. As Agave recovers from her trance, she realizes the terrible thing she has done and is condemned by Dionysus to wander the hills without relief until her death. The conclusion leaves no doubt that, as Dionysus has warned, "When you approach a god, there is no safe side!"

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