victoriousvocabulary:

MAENAD

[noun]

1. Greek mythology: the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god’s retinue. Their name literally translates as “raving ones”. Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication.

2. a frenzied woman.

Etymology: Greek μαινάδες, mainádes. Latin Maenas, from Greek mainas – madwoman.

[Glyn Smith]