Agave

Daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (Hes. *Theog.* 975–978; Apollod. 3.4.2), sister of Semele, Autonoe, and Ino. Married Echion, one of the five surviving *spartoi*, and bore Pentheus. Together with her sisters, she led the Theban maenads to Mount Cithaeron under Dionysus's spell; there, in the sparagmos, she tore her own son apart believing him a mountain lion and returned to the palace carrying his head on her thyrsus (Eur. *Bacchae* 1114–1200). When she came to her senses before Cadmus in the closing scene of the *Bacchae* (1280–1300), she went into exile, dying in Illyria according to Hyginus *Fab.* 184. Her name, 'the illustrious,' is ironised by her fate.

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