Maenad carrying a hind, fragment of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 480 BC, Louvre

In Greek mythology, Maenads were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication, and the Roman god Bacchus. The word literally translates as "raving ones". They were known as wild, insane women who could not be reasoned with. The mysteries of Dionysus inspired the women to ecstatic frenzy; they indulged in copious amounts of violence, bloodletting, sexual activity, self-intoxication, and mutilation. They were usually pictured as crowned with vine leaves, clothed in fawnskins and carrying the thyrsus, and dancing with wild abandon. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1520x1690, 1973 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Maenad Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1520x1690, 1973 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Maenad Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... Red-figure pottery is a style of Greek pottery in which the figure outlines, details and the background are painted black, while the figure itself is not painted. ... Events King Xerxes I of Persia sets out to conquer Greece. ... The Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is one of the largest, oldest, most important and famous art galleries and museums in the world. ... The Oricoli bust of Zeus, King of the Gods, in the collection of the Vatican Museum. ... A worshipper is one who is a devout follower to a certain subject. ... Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) This article is about the ancient deity. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of the juice of fruits, usually grapes. ... ... The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... Bacchus is the name of: the Roman god Bacchus, known to the Greeks as Dionysus the Christian martyr Saint Bacchus, companion to Saint Sergius; see: Saint Sergius the asteroid 2063 Bacchus the Bacchus grape variety, grown predominantly in Germany the Bacchus (painting) by Leonardo da Vinci the comic book Bacchus... // [edit] Headline text link titleLink titleItalic textItalic textBold text 03:15, 19 October 2006 (UTC) For more formal use of the term in Philosophy, see Ecstasy (philosophy) Ecstasy (from the Greek έκστασις, to be outside oneself (ancient Greek: εξίστημι (existimi) meaning stand outside where εξ (ex) means out as in exit)) is... The term vine was originally a term for the plant on which grapes grew, from the word for wine (Greek oinos), for which grapes were grown. ... Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ... In Greek mythology, a thyrsus or thyrsos was a giant fennel staff covered with ivy vines and leaves and topped with a pine cone. ...

They also were characterised as entranced women, wandering through the forests and hills.¹ Also, they are described as mad women and nurses of Dionysus, wandering through the mountains. They went into the mountains at night and practised strange rites.² Compare also the descripton in Homer's Illiad, Book VI, beginning at line 130.

" ... 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 ..."

The Maenads were also known as Bassarids (or Bacchae or Bacchantes) in Roman mythology, after the penchant of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a fox-skin, a bassaris. Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ... A fox is a member of any of 27 species of small omnivorous canids. ...

The behavior of Maenads in stories is intended to explain and display the intoxicating effects of alcohol. In some cases, the alcohol causes bizarre behavior in people and cannot be justified or explained by any other reason except that of the intoxication.

In Euripides' play, "The Bacchae", Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus 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, Agave, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion. A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ... The Bacchae (also known as The Bacchantes) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. ... For the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, see Thebes, Egypt. ... In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes. ... Agave (illustrious) was the queen of Thebes in Greek mythology, mother of Pentheus and daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus. ...

A group of Maenads also killed Orpheus. The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau. ...

A Maenad appears in the second stanza of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode to the West Wind (1819): Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822; pronounced ) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. ... Percy Bysshe Shelley composed the poem Ode to the West Wind in 1819 and published it in 1820. ...

...

Angels of rain and lightning; there are spread

On the blue surface of their airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, ev'n from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height—

...

The Bassarids, to a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is the most famous opera composed by Hans Werner Henze. Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden, known more commonly as W. H. Auden, (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English poet, often cited as one of the most influential of the 20th century. ... Chester Kallman (7 January 1921 – 18 January 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for his collaborations with Igor Stravinsky Kallman was born in Brooklyn. ... Hans Werner Henze (born July 1, 1926 in Gütersloh, Westphalia, Germany) is a composer well known for his left-wing political beliefs. ...

The maenads correspond to the Shikome in the Japanese myth of Izanami and Izanagi (which has a correspondence with the Orpheus myth). Shikome were the fierce wild women whom Izanami sent to destroy her husband Izanagi in a Japanese myth with strong parallels to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. ... In Japanese mythology, Izanami (Katakana: イザナミ; Kanji: 伊弉冉尊 or 伊邪那美命, meaning She who invites) is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. ... Izanagi (Katakana: イザナギノミコト, Kanji: Recorded in the Kojiki as 伊邪那岐命, and in the Nihonshoki as 伊弉諾神; also spelt as 伊弉諾尊) is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shintoism, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as Male Who invites, or Izanagi-no-Mikoto. ...

In Greek Art the frolicking of Maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraters, that are used to mix water and wine. These scenes show the Maenads in their frenzy running in the forests often killing any animal they happen to come across. A krater (Greek κρατηρ, from the Greek verb κεραννυμι, to mix. ...

See also Icarius, Butes, Dryas, and Minyades for other examples of Dionysus inflicting insanity upon women as a curse. In Greek mythology, there were two people named Icarius, or Ikários (and one named Icarus) Icarius was the son of Oebalus and Gorgophone and, by Periboea, father of Penelope and Perilaus. ... In Greek mythology, the name Butes referred to four different people. ... In Greek mythology, Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus of Thrace. ... See Minyan (disambiguation) for other meanings of the term. ...

References

• ¹ David Wiles, Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. 2000. [1]
• ² Katherine Lever, The Art of Greek Comedy, 1956.

External links

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Maenads

• Background and Images for the Bacchae