Maenad
Oct 18, 05:29 PM
I found my Halloween costume…
Inspired by Maryann of True Blood.
Their name literally translates as “raving ones”. Often the Maenads were portrayed as inspired by [Dionysus] into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. In this state, they would lose all self-control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior…
[F]renzied dances… are the direct manifestation of euphoric possession…by [symbolically, in my case, since I am a vegetarian,] eating the flesh of a man or animal who has temporarily incarnated the god [Dionysus], [the maneads] come to partake of his divinity.
Also, notable:
The maneads would carry a thyrsus (staff of giant fennel topped with a pine cone). It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus representing the shaft of a penis and the pine cone representing the “seed” issuing forth.
I’m going to have fun this Halloween!