Sunday 24 March 2019

Maenad with cymbals

I took this picture in Derbyshire. This statue represents, if I am not mistaken, a maenad holding cymbals. Maenads were priestess followers of the god Dionysus, who had many of them around him during celebrations. The Romans called them Bacchants, a better known term maybe, but I always prefer to use Greek terms and Greek names when it comes to mythology. They may or may not have been the minor female deities called nymphs, in any case the cymbals are a dead giveaway that she is part of Dionysus' cult, whether she is a maenad, a nymph, or both. Moral of the story: after all these years of learning about Greek mythology (I started as a young boy), I am still pretty knowledgeable and very proud to identify a character in one glance.

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Aren't they the ones who would get crazy drunk and rip men apart?