AGAVE (GREEK MYTHOLOGICAL QUEEN)

Agave ("illustrious") was the queen of Thebes in Greek mythology, mother of Pentheus and daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus. She was a Maenad, a follower of Bacchus. She was married to Echion.

In Euripedes play, "The Bacchae", Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Bacchus because the Maenads denied Pentheus' divinity. Bacchus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the Maenads tore him apart and his corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave.

Ovid III, 725