Dionysiac values are vindicated by the illumination of the consequence of a mortal acting so impiously towards this god: a gruesome, violent death. Dionysus is more powerful than Pentheus, something the mortal does not reconcile, and he pays the price for this irreverence towards Dionysus. The people of Thebes do not understand than Dionysus is a god and does not abide by Earthly concepts of justice and fairness. The violent conclusion also serves as a means for Dionysus to exact revenge on the non-believers of Thebes in that if Pentheus hadn’t been excessive in his hatred for the Bacchae, and had joined Tiresias and Cadmus in their worship of Dionysus, he would have evaded a terrible amount of suffering.
One of the first instances of Pentheus’ disdain for Dionysiac values is when he scolds Tiresias for being ridiculous in his worship of Dionysus, “If hoary old age weren’t protecting you/ you’d be sitting in chains with the rest of the Bacchae/ for importing these sinister rituals. For whenever the liquid joy/ of the grape comes into women’s festivals, then, I assure you,/ there’s nothing wholesome in their rites” (215). Pentheus considers the drinking of wine, the ivory wreath wearing, and other Dionysiac rituals to be evil and deserving of imprisonment for the disturbances they’ve brought to his town. Pentheus believes the rituals to be especially detrimental since women are participating in these acts as