Maenad
![Furious Maenad, carrying a thyrsus and a leopard, with a snake rolled up over her head. Tondo of an Ancient Greek Attic white-ground kylix 490–480 BC from Vulci. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany](/Images/godic/202412/22/Mainade_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_26453506.jpg")
![Dancing maenad. Detail from an Ancient Greek Paestum red-figure skyphos, made by Python, ca. 330-320 BC. British Museum, London](/Images/godic/202412/22/Dancing_maenad_Python_BM_VaseF2533506.jpg")
![Two satyrs and a maenad. Side A from an Ancient Greek red-figure kylyx-krater from Apulia, 380–370 BC. Louvre, Paris.](/Images/godic/202412/22/Satyroi_Mainade_Louvre_K193506.jpg")
![Dionysus and two Maenads, as depicted by the Amasis Painter circa 550-530BC.](/Images/godic/202412/22/Dionysos_Mainades_Cdm_Paris_2223506.jpg")
In Greek mythology, maenads (/ˈmiːnædz/; Ancient Greek: μαινάδες [m]) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones." Maenads were known as Bassarids, Bacchae /ˈbækiː/ or Bacchantes /ˈbækənts, bəˈkænts, -ˈkɑːnts/ in Roman mythology after the penchant of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a bassaris or fox-skin.