Bacchae
When Pentheus was insulting the disguised Dionysus, I thought that he would lash out at Pentheus and smite him. Instead, he remained very calm and let himself be taken by the guards. I was confused as to why Dionysus did not just kill him initially or subject him to his godly wrath. While I was reading, I realized that he had made a plan not just to kill Pentheus, but to destroy his family and humiliate him as well. He very carefully placed Agave at the head of the Maenads and set up the circumstances so that Pentheus would have to dress as a woman. These actions are evident of Dionysus' forethought of the situation. In this story he acts in a very cold and calculated manner with no mercy for even his most devoted of followers. These attributes were not ones I had expected to be associated with Dionysus.Â