“… He said: Well, now I've seen it! – and he meant God...” In ancient Greece there was a ritual known as the Dionysian Mysteries that involved drunken dancing and primal music to achieve a trance-like state until Dionysus possessed the faithful. This ritual culminated in the tearing (sparagmos) and consumption (homophagy) of raw, living flesh. The meat was typically an animal sacrifice, but in Euripedes' comedy The Bacchae the sacrifice was King Pentheus of Thebes; deceived by the god of pleasure himself, Dionysus, based on the temptations and desires of Pentheus. The parallel between the deaths of Pentheus and that of Sebastian is immediately evident: both were victims of esteragmos and homophagy in a primordial and ritualistic way. However, Sebastian was more than a victim of his disappearance, he was also a sacrifice “ to! – some terrible kind of-” god. Violet tells Doctor C about their experience in the Encantadas, where Sebastian claimed to see God in the cruel violence of nature as he watched predatory birds tear apart and eat small sea turtles as they tried to escape to the sea. Sebastian became a sacrifice to the Dionysian god who spent his life seeking and claiming to see in the Encantadas and consequently became a gay martyr. In The Bacchae, Dionysus appears in the kingdom of Thebes as a blond shaman who drives the women of Thebes into religious frenzy. The king of Thebes, Pentheus, is Dionysus' cousin, but does not believe that Dionysus is a true god. Pentheus is concerned about the savage cult of women, the Maenads, also known as Bacchae, especially since his mother is one of the worshipers. However, Dionysus learns that Pentheus is more than simply worried; he has a lustful desire to see the ritual of the maenads. Dionysus prey to Pentheus' desire and... middle of paper... disconcerting display of slingshots and homophagy. The sight of these rituals is powerful enough to drive a person crazy, and they do indeed drive Catherine crazy. However, Sebastian's death can also be seen as a liberation. Not only was he liberated from a society that denied him as a human being; he was also handed over to his god as a supreme gift. In Christianity Jesus sacrificed his life for humanity. Sebastian sacrificed his life for his own liberation. In the film version of Suddenly, Last Summer by Joseph L. Mankiewicz we see a painting of the Christian martyr Saint Sebastian in Sebastian's study. Saint Sebastian is closely associated in modern literature as an icon of homosexuality; however, this distinction was taken from history and made true. Tennesee Williams Invents His Own Gay Martyr, Names Sebastian Venable Patron Saint of 20th-Century Homosexuality.