Acoetes (Bacchic myth)

[1] This Acoetes was, according to Ovid,[2] the son of a poor fisherman in Maeonia, who served as pilot in a ship.

When the ship had reached the open sea, the boy awoke, and desired to be carried back to Naxos.

Hereupon the god showed himself to them in his own majesty: Vines began to twine round the vessel, and Bacchus stood crowned with grapes, holding his thyrsus (a staff with a pine cone on top, wrapped with vines and ivy leaves) and surrounded by panthers and tigers.

Acoetes alone was saved and continued on his journey with Bacchus,[3] returning to Naxos, where he was initiated in the Bacchic mysteries and became a priest of the god.

After listening to Acoetes tale of being on the ship with Bacchus, Pentheus ordered him jailed and tortured.