BACCANTI

BACCANTI. — Minor Greek female deities who followed Dionysus. They were depicted with loose hair, a fawnskin (nebride) over their long robes, and in their hands a thyrsus, a cymbal, a torch, or a fawn, which they brandished in the frenzied movements of the Bacchic dance. Euripides, in the Bacchae, has wonderfully described their sacred frenzy, during which they boast of making wine, milk, and honey flow, tearing men and animals apart and devouring them. The term b. is also applied to the priestesses of Dionysus, in whom the delirious exaltation of the mythical prototypes is only slightly diminished.