Raving, frenzied, and mad have been words to describe women that have sparked worry and inspired fear among men throughout the centuries. The Maenads in Ancient Greece and later in the Roman Empire were no different in this regard.
In Graeco-Roman mythology, Maenads (Ancient Greek: μαινάδες ‘Raving Ones’ Ancient Roman: ‘Bacchantes’) were the female followers of The Greek God Dionysus and later the Roman God Bacchus. They were the gods of wine, fertility, ritual madness, and religious ecstasy just to name a few, and the most important members of the Thiasus (the god’s retinue).
The Maenads were often described as ‘mad women’ wearing fawn skins with ivy-wreaths or bull helmets upon their heads and a thyroid staff (essentially a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped with a pine cone) some accounts even suggest that they handled and/or wore snakes.
During the Bacchanalia Festival (celebrated from c. 200 BCE - until its reform in 186 BCE), Maenads were characterized as dancing, screaming, and drunkenly inciting one another to greater ecstasy in order to achieve a state of enthusiasm which would see their souls temporarily freed from their earthly forms. It sounds like a great party!
This part of the rite was significant due to the fact that not only did the Graeco-Roman world exclude women from certain public and religious rituals but they also banned them from drinking wine let alone getting drunk from such libations. The Bacchanalia ritual climaxed in frenzied feats of maddening strength such as uprooting trees, tearing a bull (the symbol of Dionysus and Bacchus) apart with their bare hands (an act called sparagmos), and eating its raw flesh (an act called omophagia which is akin to communion).
The goal of the practices of the festival was to commune with Dionysus or Bacchus in order to bear witness to and prepare for their own eternal lives while symbolically embodying the god themselves.
The mentioning of maenads can be seen in plays throughout history, for example in Euripides’ play “the Bacchae” (c. 405 BCE) the maenads of Thebes murders the king after he banned them from worshiping Dionysus. The maenads were also often depicted frolicking with Dionysus on ceramic kraters. They are also depicted on jewelry and as statues.
Text: Megan Kumorek. MENAM Archaeology. Copyright 2023.
Images: Wikimedia Commons
Further reading:
Abel, Ernest L. (2006). Intoxication in Mythology: A Worldwide Dictionary of Gods, Rites, Intoxicants, and Place. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers.
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