Why does Dionysus punish Pentheus in Euripides’ Bacchants?

In the play Bacchae (also known as Bacchants), the god Dionysus punishes King Pentheus primarily because the king and the people of Thebes reject his divinity and refuse to acknowledge or participate in his worship.12

Upon arriving in Thebes, Dionysus—disguised as a charismatic holy man—seeks to introduce his orgiastic rites. Pentheus, acting as the city's ruler, actively opposes this new religion and attempts to arrest the god. In retaliation for this defiance and the rejection of his divine authority, Dionysus drives Pentheus into a state of insanity. This manipulation leads the king to the mountains, where he is ultimately killed by his own mother, Agave, and the women of Thebes while they are in a state of bacchic frenzy.12

The tragedy serves to illustrate the volatile nature of Dionysiac worship, highlighting the tension between the liberating, ecstatic power of the god and the dangerous loss of reason that occurs when his influence is resisted or mishandled.2