What did Bacchus carry?

What did Bacchus carry?

Bacchus was always depicted as a young man who was usually beardless and often drunk. He sometimes carried a thyrsus—a staff wound with ivy and covered in honey.

What was on the top of the staff carried by the maenads?

It is wielded by the Maenad followers of Dionysus. The object embedded on the staff was the head of Pentheus (by his ecstatic mother, Agave, 1140–41). It is a signifier of Dionysus (1387). There is no mention of a pinecone.

What were Bacchus followers called?

The Maenads or Mainades, the ‘raving ones’ of Greek mythology are the female devotees, attendants or followers of the god Dionysus called Bacchus by the Romans. Known as the ‘possessed ones’ or ‘ravers’ they are important members of the god’s following known as the Thiasus. Sleeping Bacchante.

What is the term for a staff topped with a pinecone or Ivy?

A thyrsus /ˈθɜːrsəs/ or thyrsos /ˈθɜːrˌsɒs/ (Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone or by a bunch of vine-leaves and grapes or ivy-leaves and berries, carried during Hellenic festivals and …

What is the name of the staff crowned with a pine cone or a bunch of ivy leaves and carried by maenads?

After Ariadne’s death, Dionysus entered Hades and brought both her and Semele to Mt Olympus to live as immortals. In ancient art, Dionysus is often pictured carrying a thyrsus, a wooden staff entwined with ivy and capped with a pine cone and vine leaves.

When did the Roman cult of Bacchus begin?

Bacchus was inaugurated into Roman state religion with the adoption of the mystery cult of Dionysus (or the Greek Bakkhos) in the late third century BCE. The Roman iteration of Bacchus was an outgrowth and reincarnation of Liber, an ancient Roman wine god.

Where did the Roman god Bacchus get his name?

Even his name reflected this. Bacchus did not come from a Roman word, but from the Greek bakkheia, a term used to describe a state of frenzy and intoxication. Roman legend claimed that the god was first brought to the city in 200 BC. Even then, his cult was kept largely a secret.

What did the Roman god Bacchus do for a party?

Much like his Greek counterpart Dionysus, Bacchus earned the title of party god. In fact, a drunken orgy is still called a bacchanalia, and for good reason. Devotees of Bacchus whipped themselves into a frenzy of intoxication, and in the spring Roman women attended secret ceremonies in his name.

How did Bacchus die in the Titanomachy?

Bacchus (or Liber) was among the early Roman godswho fought in the cataclysmic struggle known as the Titanomachy. This struggle pitted Jupiter’s kin against the defenders of this father, Saturn. In one of the conflict’s epic battles, Bacchus was killed and his body torn to pieces.