Thyrsus
Videos
In Ancient Greece a thyrsus or thyrsos was a wand or staff of giant fennel covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, artichoke, fennel, or by a bunch
Antinous holding the thyrsus while posed as Dionysus (Museo Pio-Clementino)
Thyrsus staff tied with taenia and topped with a pine cone
A Maenad using her thyrsos to ward off a Satyr, Attic red-figure kylix, c. 480 BC
Roman relief showing a Maenad holding a thyrsus, 120–140 AD. Prado Museum, Madrid.
The Bacchae
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The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Thea
Thyrsus
…the ground as murderous Lycurgus beat them with his oxgoad. The thyrsus is explicitly attributed to Dionysus and his followers in Euripides's tragedy The Bacchae, which describes the degradation of Thebes in vindication for the sullied name of Dionysus's mortal mother. The story concerns the murder of the young…
Pentheus being torn apart by Agave and Ino, Attic red-figure vase painting, c. 450-425 BC
Dionysus with two Maenads, female worshipers and part of his retinue. c. 550–530 BC
Roman fresco from Pompeii depicting Pentheus being torn apart by maenads.
American student production, 2012