I.a Bacchanet, a female attendant of Bacchus, who, in company with Silenus and the Satyrs, celebrated the festival of that deity with a raving madness carried even to insensibility, with an ivy crown upon her head, a fawn-skin upon her left shoulder, a staff wound with ivy in her hand, and with hair loose and flying wildly about, Plaut. Am. 2, 2, 71; id. Aul. 3, 1, 3; id. Cas. 5, 4, 9; id. Bacch. 3, 1, 4; 1, 1, 19; Varr. L. L. 7, § 87 Müll.; Ov. M. 4, 25; 6, 587 sq.; 9, 642; 11, 89; id. Tr. l. l.; id. H. 10, 48; id. F. 6, 507; Prop. 3 (4), 22, 33; Luc. 5, 74 (Matres Edonides, Ov. M. 11, 69; “v. Bacchus).—Represented in paintings: Bacchas istas cum Musis Metelli comparas,” Cic. Fam. 7, 23, 2: “Bacchis initiare aliquem,” to initiate into the festivals of Bacchus, Liv. 39, 9, 4 Weissenb. ad loc.; 39, 10, 2; “39, 14, 8.—In a pun with Bacchis (q. v. II.): quia Bacchis, Bacchas metuo et Bacchanal tuom,” Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 19; cf. id. ib. 3, 1, 4; v. Bacchis. —Hence,
II. Deriv.: Bacchēus , a, um, adj., = Βάκχειος, relating to the Bacchœ or Bacchantes, Bacchantian: “vox,” Col. 10, 223: “sanguis,” spilt by them, Stat. Th. 1, 328: “bella,” id. ib. 12, 791.
