Rising Action or Exploding Action?

The god Dionysis is very interesting. The city that disclaims his divinity and dishonors his name is sentenced (by him) to be in a state of madness and constant worship of him. However, what does this state of madness consist of? Orgies, drinking honey, milk, and possessing a septor that performs miracles and magic and whatnot. This does not sound like a very terrible punishment to me. Granted, then here comes Pentheus with his ideals and untainted views and he screws it all up. He ends up getting killed by his own mother and her sisters. Unfortunate? Yes. But this is not how Dionysis originally planned to punish the city. He was just going to make them go out to the mountains and be a little barbaric for a few days. That hardly seems like punishment. And then Pentheus does nothing different than what the rest of his city has already done: deny Dionysis right to godness. But this time he flips out and makes him dress up as a woman and then he's quartered and killed by his own mother. Was this like the last straw that broke Dionysis back of tolerance for insubordination? It IS a Greek tragedy, so extremes are played as usual, but I feel like there could have been a better rising action to it, then just Dionysis just exploding out of nowhere and taking out all his fury on one dude. Makes the reader really empathetic and sympathetic for Pentheus. I guess all of us have had a friend blow up on us for no reason, just because (s)he was stressed in general and then took it out on us. But I do not remember ever trying to be eaten by my friends or mother.