Ovid's story of Pentheus in Metamorphoses III follows the plot of Euripides' play: the king of Thebes refuses to recognise Bacchus, imprisons one of the god's followers, goes to spy on the women's rites on Mount Cithaeron and is torn apart by them, his mother Agave first. Ovid adds material of his own, notably the story of the sailors turned into dolphins, told by the captured follower Acoetes. MEDIUM, as one episode among a lot of them.
