A late tragedy in which the god Dionysus comes to Thebes, the city of his birth, to establish his worship. Its young king, Pentheus, refuses to accept the new cult and tries to suppress the women who follow the god into the mountains. The play sets reason and order against ecstasy and instinct, and asks what happens when a community denies a power it cannot control. It is strange, beautiful and unsettling, and was probably first staged after the author's death.