maenad

plural maenads · plural maenades · alternative archaic mænad · alternative menad

1. Greekalsoattributivehuman sciencesA female follower of Dionysus (“the god of wine”), associated with intense revelling.

   Even in the uttermost frenzy of energy is each mænad movement royally, imperially, incedingly upborne.

   1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Vashti”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 191

   5 more examples

   VVild yuie) for it is dedicated to Bacchus & therefore it is ſayd that the Mænades (that is Bacchus franticke prieſtes) vſed in theyr ſacrifice to carry Thyrſos, vvhich vvere pointed ſtaues or Iauelins, vvrapped about vvith yuie.

   1579, E. K., “[October. Ægloga Decima.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 43, verso

   The ſecrets of the good goddeſs are knovvn, vvhen the pipe the loins / Incites; and alſo vvith the horn, and vvith vvine, the Mænads of Priapus / Are driven, aſtoniſhed, and toſs their hair and hovvl.

   1789, Juvenal, “Satire VI”, in M[artin] Madan, transl., A New and Literal Translation of Juvenal and Persius; […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the editor, and sold at T. Becket’s, […], →OCLC, page 273, lines 313–315

   I, a most enamoured maiden / Whose weak brain is overladen / With the pleasure of her love, / Maniac-like around thee move / Gazing, an insatiate bride, / On thy form from every side / Like a Mænad, round the cup / Which Agave lifted up / In the wierd^([sic – meaning weird]) Cadmæan forest.

   1818–1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, pages 146–147

   All about the walls hung pen and oil sketches of fantastic sea-monsters; dances of satyrs and menads; […]

   1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Portrait”, in Romola. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, →OCLC, book I, page 309

   We know from the subjects of his [Scopas's] famous statues recorded by ancient writers, such as the raving Menad, that his works were replete with life, movement and passion.

   1914, Charles Waldstein, “The Subject-matter of Art”, in Greek Sculpture and Modern Art: Two Lectures Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy of London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: [Cambridge] University Press, →OCLC, page 53

   Synonyms: Baccha, bacchante, Bassarid

2. broadlyderogatoryliteraryAn excessively emotional or wild woman.

   1 more example

   Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was desire.

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXX, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 162