Did everybody just forget the scene where Cadmus and Tiresias set off to dance in the mountains dressed up in fawn skins? Apparently, no one cares about that, least of all Dionysus, who dooms the old man to leading a barbarian horde in the form of a snake. We think it's kind of weird that nobody mentions this here. This is pretty ironic, because Cadmus was the only one in the family who willingly worshiped Dionysus.
The old man pleads with Dionysus saying, "Have mercy, Dionysus, we have sinned" (311). The only person who says he's in the wrong at the end is Cadmus. Agave doesn't seem to be sorry at all, she's just mad the whole thing happened.
As she exits the stage, she's not thinking, "Well, next time I'm going to mind my manners when a new god comes around." Instead she says, "Let others meddle with Bacchants" (332). When Dionysus tells her she's banished she complains the god is "merciless" (313). Agave isn't sorry at all for spurning Dionysus to begin with. The thing is it doesn't really count because Dionysus is the one that took over her mind and made her do it. She definitely has a moment of recognition, when she realizes that the bloody head she's holding is actually her son's and not a lion's. You do see a bit of an anagnorisis with Agave. At the end of the play, he's completely unrepentant. Dionysus set out to show everybody who's boss and that's just what he's done. Causing Agave to rip her son Pentheus's head off? A job well done. Making all the ladies of Thebes go crazy and dismember cattle? Awesome. He's happy as a bug in a rug about the horror he's caused. However, Dionysus, the protagonist of The Bacchae, isn't sorry one bit. Basically, it's the part of the play where the hero goes, "Oh my gosh, I really messed up." According to Aristotle, the anagnorisis is supposed to happen to the play's protagonist. This is Greek for a moment of realization or recognition. If you listen to Aristotle, tragedies are supposed to end with the hero having an anagnorisis. The ending of The Bacchae is remarkable because nobody learns anything.
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