Bacchanalia were feasts held in honour of Bacchus and characterized by licentiousness and revelry celebrated in ancient Athens. In the processions were bands of Bacchantes of both sexes, who, inspired by real or feigned intoxication, wandered about rioting and dancing. They were clothed in fawn-skins, crowned with ivy, and bore in their hands thyrsi, that is spears entwined with ivy, or having a pine-cone stuck on the point. These feasts passed from the Greeks to the Romans, who celebrated them with still greater dissoluteness until the senate abolished them in 187 BC. Research Bacchanalia
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Bacchanalia
