http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of DionysusDionysus
In classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
, the most significant members of the ThiasusThiasus
In Greek mythology, the thiasus , was the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers. In vase-paintings or bas-reliefs, lone female figures brandishing the thyrsos can be recognized as members of the thiasus...
, the retinue of Dionysus. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by him into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxicationIntoxication
Intoxication is the state of being affected by one or more psychoactive drugs. It can also refer to the effects caused by the ingestion of poison or by the overconsumption of normally harmless substances.Some types of intoxication:*A mechanism of disease....
. In this state, they would lose all self-control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and ritualRitual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers, or dictated purely by logic, chance, necessity, etc..A ritual may be...
istically hunt down and tear animals (and sometimes men and children) to pieces, devouring the raw flesh. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsusThyrsus
In Greek mythology, a thyrsus was a staff of giant fennel covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone. Where these emblems were, there was the spirit of Dionysus also. Euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the...
, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped by a cluster of leaves; weave ivy-wreaths around their heads; and often handle or wear snakes.
German philologist Walter Friedrich OttoWalter Friedrich Otto
Walter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] OttoWalter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] OttoWalter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] Otto(22 June 1874 (Hechingen — 23 September 1958 Tübingen) was a German classical philologist.-Selected bibliography:* Die Manen: Oder, von den Urformen des Totenglaubens 1923.*Die Götter...
writes that, "The BacchaeThe Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon...
of Euripides gives us the most vital picture of the wonderful circumstance in which, as PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
says in the Ion, the god-intoxicated celebrants draw milk and honey from the streams. They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. Fire does not burn them. No weapon of iron can wound them, and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks. Fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts.”
The maddened Hellenic women of real life were mythologizedMythology
Mythology is the study of myths and or of a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;...
as the mad women who were nurses of Dionysus in NysaNysa
Nysa may refer to:Towns:* Nysa, Poland: a town in southern Poland on the Nysa Kłodzka river.* Nysa, Anatolia: was an ancient Hellenistic city founded by Antiochus I Soter.* Nisa, Turkmenistan* Nysa-Scythopolis, the Hellenistic Bet She'an in northern Israel...
: "he that on a time drave down over the sacred mount of Nysa the nursing mothers of mad Dionysus; and they all let fall to the ground their wands." (Iliad, VI.130ff). They went into the mountains at night and practised strange rites.
In MacedonMacedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paionia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south...
, according to PlutarchPlutarch
Plutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's Life of Alexander, they were called Mimallones and Klodones. In Greece they were described as Bacchae, Bassarides, ThyiaThyia
According to Hesiod's Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, Thyia was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Zeus....
des, Potniades and other epithets.
The maenads were also known as Bassarids (or Bacchae or Bacchantes) in Roman mythologyRoman mythology
Roman mythology, or Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Ancient Rome. It can be considered as having two parts; One part, largely later and literary, consists of borrowings from Greek mythology...
, after the penchant of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a foxFox
Fox is a common name for many species of carnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail ....
-skin, a bassaris.
In EuripidesEuripides
Euripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
' play The BacchaeThe Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon...
, Theban maenads murdered King PentheusPentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
after he banned the worship of Dionysus. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tore him apart. His corpse was mutilated by his own mother, AgaveAgave (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Agave was the daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters were Autonoë, Ino and Semele. She married Echion, one of the five spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of Thebes. She also had a daughter...
, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion.
A group of maenads also killed OrpheusOrpheus
Orpheus is an important figure from Greek mythology, the inspiration for subsequent Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and, due to his association with singing and the lyre, much dramatic Western classical music.Orpheus was called by Pindar "the...
.
In Greek vase paintingVase painting
Vase painting is the painting of figurative or non-figurative decoration onto pottery. The phrase is most often used to describe such art as produced in ancient Greece....
, the frolicking of maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraterKrater
A krater was a large vase used to mix wine and water in Ancient Greece.-Form and function:...
s, used to mix water and wine. These scenes show the maenads in their frenzy running in the forests, often tearing to pieces any animal they happen to come across.
See also IcariusIcarius
In Greek mythology, there were two people named Icarius, or Ikários .#One Icarius was the son of Oebalus and Gorgophone and, through Periboea, father of Penelope, Perileos and Iphthime. He was a Spartan king and a champion runner who would not allow anyone to marry his daughter unless he beat him...
, ButesButes
In Greek mythology, the name Butes referred to three different people.*An Argonaut, son of Teleon. Aphrodite's lover, a famous bee keeper and a Sicilian king. He was the father of Eryx by Aphrodite....
, DryasDryas
Dryas is the name of nine characters in Greek mythology1. Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus, king of the Edoni in Thrace; "Shepherd of the People", Nestor calls him...
, and MinyadesMinyades
The Minyades were three sisters in Greek mythology who were daughters of Minyas, and the protagonists of a myth about the perils of neglecting the worship of Dionysus...
for other examples of Dionysus inflicting insanity upon women as a curse.
Nurses/nymphs
The name maenad has come to be associated with a wide variety of women, supernatural, mythological, and historical, associated with the god Dionysus and his worship. In the realm of the supernatural, we have the category of nymphs/nurses who care for the young Dionysus, and continue in his worship as he comes of age. The god Hermes is said to have carried the young Dionysus to the nymphs of Nysa.
Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young girls who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polisPolis
A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens...
. Throughout Greek mythology, they often act as attendants for one or more of the major gods or goddesses. They are extremely long-lived, but not necessarily immortal.
In another myth, when his mother, Semele, is killed, the care of young Dionysus falls into the hands of her sisters, Ino, Agave, and Autonoe, who later are depicted as participating in the rites and taking a leadership role among the other maenads