end with a purging of emotional catastrophe, known as a catharsis. The aspects of Aristotle's ideal plot are well represented in Euripides' Bacchae. The play begins with Dionysus' prologue describing his birth to mortal Semele and immortal Zeus and his journey from Asia to Greece. He reveals that he has come to Thebes to gain recognition and worship as the god of nature, ecstasy, creation, and destruction because his aunts deny him and what he stands for. To prove his immortality, he forces all Theban women to wander in madness under trees. Dionysus attempts to spread a cult of his followers in the city of Thebes. The king of Thebes, Pentheus, disapproves of the Bacchic rites and tries to suppress the cult. A change of fortune occurs when Pentheus cannot re
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