Myths
Olympians
Titans
Greek Gods
Myths
Ancient Sources
Figures in the ancient sources
Maenads in the ancient sources
5 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Maenads, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Maenads are the frenzied female followers of Dionysus in Greek mythology, known for their ecstatic rituals and wild dances in the forests. For the story in one place, read our article on Maenads.
Euripides (3)
- Euripides, Bacchae 1024–1094Exodos: a second messenger announces Pentheus' deathA servant of Pentheus comes out to lament the house of Kadmos, and tells the Chorus that Pentheus is dead. He tells how he went up Kithairon with his master and the stranger, and how Pentheus asked to climb a tree to see the Maenads better. The stranger bent a pine to the ground, set Pentheus on it and let it spring upright, and a voice from the air told the women to punish the man who mocked them.
- Euripides, Bacchae 977–1023Fourth choral ode: the hounds of MadnessThe Chorus calls on the swift hounds of Madness to go to the mountain and drive the daughters of Kadmos against the man who spies on the Maenads. They sing that Justice will strike down the lawless offspring of Echion, and that those who resist the god's rites are punished. They pray that Dionysus will appear as a bull, serpent or lion and throw a noose around the hunter of the Bacchae.
- Euripides, Bacchae 1095–1152Messenger speech: the death of PentheusThe Maenads stone Pentheus in the pine, then tear the tree up by the roots. Pentheus falls and pulls off his headband so that his mother will know him, but Agave, possessed, begins the killing, and Ino, Autonoe and the others tear him apart. Agave carries his head on a thyrsos toward the palace, and the messenger leaves, urging reverence for the gods.
Theocritus (1)
- Theocritus, Idylls 26.1–38Idyll 26: The Bacchae and PentheusIno, Autonoe and Agave lead their bands of Maenads to the mountain and build altars to Semele and Dionysus. Pentheus, watching them from a hidden place, is discovered, and the women tear him to pieces. The poem ends with a plea that no one blame what the gods demand.
[Eratosthenes] (1)
- [Eratosthenes], Catasterismi (Constellation Myths) 22–25Perseus, the Pleiad, the Lyre and the SwanPerseus's journey to the Gorgons and the genealogies of the seven Pleiades are told first. Then come Orpheus, whom the Maenads tore apart and the Muses buried, and the Swan that Zeus became to seduce Nemesis.
