Bacchae
（
Βάκχαι).
1.
The female followers of Bacchus or
Dionysus
(q.v.) in his wanderings through the East, and represented as crowned with vine-leaves,
wearing fawn-skins, and carrying the thyrsus in their hands. They are also known as
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Baccha. (Bas-relief from the Villa Borghese.)
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Maenades (from
μαίνομαι, to rave) and Thyiades
(from
θύω, to sacrifice).
2.
Priestesses of Bacchus or Dionysus. See
Bacchantes.
3.
The title of a play by Euripides which treats of the arrival of Dionysus at Thebes and the
death of
Pentheus (q.v.).
