my pentheus designs for various points before and during the bacchae. (reuploaded bc i wanted to make a few edits. more info below the cut)
some general points are that i chose to give him auburn hair, as according to philostratus, he had reddish hair that he took great pride in. i also made him kind of weedy and skinny because he's literally the epitome of self-denial and self-restraint. he is wasting away. the snake on his thigh is the mark that all the descendants of echion have.
first: is pentheus just before he becomes king. as tiresias points out, pentheus has been maddened for a long time before dionysos appears, so i see him as being generally kind of miserable and discontented with his life. he has longish hair because he's a youth still, and i don't think that was really something he wanted to lose. i mean, look at how he wants to go back to being a little kid again in agave's arms.
second: is him during the events of the bacchae, when he has become king. i think he's only been king for a very short amount of time by that point. he has cut his hair short to assert himself as an adult and as masculine, even though it made him sad to lose his long hair. it's poorly cut because he couldn't quite bear to lose the long strands at the front. also, he's angrier rather than sad as now he's king he's started projecting his anger outwards onto other people rather than inflicting it on himself.
third: is him when dionysos dresses him up as a maenad. he's as stereotypically feminine as i could make him; he has a long blond wig, as blond hair was seen as attractive for women, he is wearing heavy makeup to make himself seem paler on his face and hands, also a beauty standard for women, and he is wearing yellow, which was a colour mainly worn by women (and dionysos). i wanted him to look a bit like dionysos too, with the yellow dress and yellow hair. also, the red bit at the top of his skirt is symbolic of that one vase painting where his whole lower half has been torn off. it's foreshadowing. he's also smiling bc apparently it takes divine madness to make this guy happy.
it's simple. i think if you make fun of bridget thigh high collar animal noise girls you should be killed immediately and brutally. i think if you're mean to girls who are struggling to recover from a lifetime of trauma and mistreatment that is renewed every time they go outside you are lower than dirt. i cannot tolerate it i just cant.
love when an absolute nightmare of a character is introduced and all you can think is "jesus christ buddy what the hell is your problem" and the narrative gives you a hot minute to stew before explaining Exactly what is Their Problem. and you just sorta sit back in your metaphorical rocking chair and think "huh. yeah okay fair. that would do this to a person, yes."
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