Θυίαισιν (“θύω”, to sacrifice), female votaries of Dionysus,—here, his attendant Nymphs (O. C. 679 n.),—not human worshippers. The pediment of the temple at Delphi represented Dionysus with the Thyiads, and a setting sun (Stephani, Compt. rend., 1860, vol. 3 pp. 77 ff.). Similar names were “Βάκχαι, Αῆναι, Μαινάδες” (this properly a general epithet); and, in Macedonia, “Κλώδωνες, Μιμαλλόνες” ( Plut. Alex. 2). Plut. Mor. 389C quotes some words of a thyiad song, “εὔιον ὀρσιγύναικα μαινομέναις Διόνυσον ἀνθέοντα τιμαῖς”. In Elis a Dionysiac festival was called “τὰ Θυῖα” (Paus. 6.26.1). Cp. Catull. 64. 255 ff.: Verg. Aen. 4. 301 ff. χορεύουσι with acc. of the god, as Pind. I. 1. 7“Φοῖβον χορεύων”. Cp. “κόπτομαι, τίλλομαι, τύπτομαι” with acc. of person mourned.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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