Bacchantes
Men and women who joined in the Dionysian festivals dressed in Asiatic robes and bonnets;
and with their heads wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, with fawn-skins (
νεβρίδες) flung over their shoulders, and thyrsi, or blunt spears twined with
vine-leaves, in their hands, they ran through the country, shouting
Io Bacche! Euoi!
Iacche!
Ιὰ! Ιή! swinging their thyrsi, beating on drums, and
sounding various instruments. Indecent emblems were carried in procession, and the ceremonies
often assumed a most immoral character and tendency. The women, who bore a chief part in these
frantic revels, were called Bacchae, Maenades, Thyiades, Euades. See
Dionysia.