viii. That girlish stranger who's introduced this new plague and fouled our beds - I want him.

xxxv. What a mane of hair you have: very seductive. Look at it falling down your cheeks.

xxxvi. As for this body, we'll treasure it - In our prison!

xxxvii. You are Dithyrambus! Into my male womb, come!

xxxix. He tried to bind me, his hands, though, never touched me; he fed on his desires.

lxxix. Yes, I want to spoil you, in my way.

A Queer Reading

Applying a modern critical theory to an ancient text is, by default, a problematic feat, especially when the chosen tool is queer theory, with its close affinities with gay and lesbian studies and the constant reminder that homosexuality is a recent category no more than one hundred years old.

Several modern critics have proposed the idea that Pentheus' cross-dressing is consistent with his desire for Dionysos and previously suppressed homosexual tendencies (Ormand 10-13). Eric Robertson Dodds has also argued that Pentheus' negative reaction against the Dionysiac cult was a result of the fact that it blurred the differences of gender and class (xxvii-xxviii) and this could be approached as an instance of "homophobic panic."

Prior to his "feminisation," Pentheus is the "ideal" picture of masculinity: a strong king, a man in power. When he cross-dresses, however, he shows signs of what might be considered typical of "female nature," that is, of the socially constructed image of the female gender, he is overtly concerned with his appearance, a true coquette (Bacchae 932-44), and he is willing to deploy tricks like disguising, hiding and spying - all suitable only for women and adolescents, beings partly belonging to wilderness - thus renouncing his hoplite military code which demands direct, masculine confrontation (Ormand 13).