Bacchantes
Dance of Bacchantes, painted by the ceramic painter, Hieron. British Museum
The female devotees of the god Dionysus, the youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus, that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus, but does not occur till after the time of Herodotus.
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologySee:
Dionysius and the Bacchanalia
The Bacchae
Of Euripides
The Dionysia
