Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In Greek mythology, maenads (/ ˈ m iː n æ d z /; Ancient Greek: μαινάδες) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of his retinue, the thiasus. Their name, which comes from μαίνομαι ( maínomai , “to rave, to be mad; to rage, to be angry”), [ 1 ] literally translates as 'raving ones'.
The title refers to the groups of devoted female followers of the god, who serve as the chorus in the play, and would engage in ecstatic rituals to the point of euphoric delirium motivated by the god's association with wine, sexuality, celebration, and the theater. The play deals with the themes of religion, sexuality, sacrifice and devotion. [5]
Find answers to the latest online sudoku and crossword puzzles that were published in USA TODAY Network's local newspapers. Puzzle solutions for Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024 Skip to main content
An angered Dionysus caused Pentheus' mother Agave and his aunts Ino and Autonoë, along with all the other women of Thebes, to rush to Mount Cithaeron in a Bacchic frenzy. Accordingly, Pentheus imprisoned Dionysus, thinking the man simply a follower, but his chains fell off and the jail doors opened for him.
The satyrs and their female counterpart, the maenads, were followers of Dionysus, a “late-comer to Olympus and probably of Asiatic origin”. [11] According to Roger Lancelyn Green, the satyrs probably began as minor nature deities, while their designated leader Silenus originated as a water spirit, a maker of springs and fountains. [ 12 ]
Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young god's tutor. This puts him in a company of phallic or half-animal tutors of the gods, a group that includes Priapus , Hermaphroditus , Cedalion and Chiron , but also includes Pallas , the tutor of Athena .
Dionysus arrives in his true, divine form, banishes Agave and her sisters, and transforms Cadmus and his wife Harmonia into serpents. Only Tiresias is spared. [255] Lycurgus trapped by the vine, on the Lycurgus Cup. In the Iliad, when King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus' followers, the Maenads.
An "unspoken" sparagmos may have been the central element underlying the very genre of Greek tragedy. [1] [2] Maenads and Pentheus, House of the VettiiSparagmos (Ancient Greek: σπαραγμός, from σπαράσσω sparasso, "tear, rend, pull to pieces") is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, [3] usually in a Dionysian context.