or madness, which may be the origin of our word "mania" but which involves all its various senses at once, that of raging love as well as raging anger. The women of Dionysus were called mainades, or Maenads:
There were many portrayals of them, showing them in long robes, with heads lightly thrown back, wreathed with ivy, carrying the thyrsus--a long staff of narthex with a pine-cone on its end. Thus attired they ran rather than danced, accompanied by flutes, drums, and tambourines (Kerényi 260).
These women were said to be driven mad by wine. They were also known as the Bacchantes--the Roman version of Dionysus is Bacchus--and they would rush through the woods and over mountains uttering sharp cries, tearing the wild creatures they encountered to pieces and devouring the bloody shreds of flesh while they sang.
...