One of those things that literal critics wonder about in Greek drama is the cause of Cadmus’ exile from Thebes, which is mentioned at the end of The Bacchae. After all, he was not guilty of impiety like his grandson, Pentheus. Tiresias and he were even prepared to go out into the countryside to worship Dionysus, before Pentheus caught and shamed them. One criticism that I have read conjectured that his punishment was due to his belief not being genuine. Instead he was motivated to acknowledge Dionysus as a god by the selfish hope that doing so would bring honor to their family.

I myself never bought into this sort of reasoning. Euripedes had Cadmus exiled at the end of his drama because that was his traditional fate according to mythology. To be sure dramatists did change Mythological “facts” to suit their dramatic needs. But I believe that here Cadmus’ exile was always fated to happen. What’s in question here is whether his exile always had something to do with Dionysus’ dishorable treatment by Pentheus or was it due to something else. Like perhaps some wrath of Ares that carried over from the slaying of the Draco? Many ancient dramas that may have helped explain this are now lost… and even a rather large portion of Dionysus’ speech at the end of The Bacchae is missing from the Greek text. We may never know the answer for sure.

But on a more personal note, I’ve decided to try a schedule for regular updates. I’ll be updating twice a week (for the forseeable future, at least) on Mondays and Thursdays. Most web-comics are either once a week (Like Maakies), three days a week (like Penny-Arcade or xkcd) or five times a week (like PvP or Diesel Sweeties). The typical schedule for a three day a week comic seems to be Monday, Wednesday, & Friday (though the now completed 8-bit Theater ran Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday). I have decided to “meet in the middle” and update Monday and Thursday. If I can increase my productivity I may move to a Monday, Wednesday, & Friday schedule… but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

There’s an interesting story to go with this panel too. Sit a while and I’ll tell you! You may remember from high school history about the first triumvirate, which was made up of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and some other guy. That other guy was Marcus Licinius Crassus. He was older than Caesar and Pompey and perhaps a little jealous of their accomplishments. Trying to win glory, Crassus went to war with the Parthian Empire to the east and was rather ignobly defeated and killed.

So what does this have to do with Mythology? Well the Parthian Empire was formed out of part of Alexander the Great’s old empire. Greek influence upon the upper class of Parthian society was significant, and it turned out that the Parthian king Orodes II was not only fluent in Greek, but was also a fan of the theater. After being given the severed head of Crassus, he had it used as a prop in a performance of the Bacchae of Euripides. Crassus got to play the part of Pentheus, the poor sod…

So enjoy the latest panel, I’ll have the next ready later this week. Do check back!

So my summer begins today. Seven weeks of glorious freedom from responsibility. I’ll try not to let the lack of structured time render me completely unproductive… but it might be tough!

But enough with the tech-talk… the story of King Pentheus of Thebes continues and is nearly complete. The newest panel is currently pentheus19, and the next panel will be posted later this week… probably on Wednesday or Thursday. I am still trying to work out a regular schedule for updates, but once I decide that for sure I’ll be sure to post that info here.

Many thanks to my buddy Nathan Wiegand for his help with moving my site to Wordpress.