Women, Weird and Wonderful: The Minyad Sisters

The god Dionysos didn’t ask much from his followers: only that they would party in his name, the wilder, the better. It’s no wonder that his retinue counted lots of women, breaking free from restrictive conventions. Their excessive behaviour provoked a counter movement of disapprovement and even disgust, but the god’s revenge for being serious and diligent was merciless. He would grant doubting women one chance, like he did with the daughters of king Minyas. Disguised as a friend, he invited them to participate in a festival in his honour. The princesses refused and kept on spinning and weaving. To add injury to insult, they killed time by narrating myths that starred Dionysos’ fellow gods, stressing that a drunk parvenu like him would never make it to Olympos. O, ye of little faith… According to Ovid, “a skinny membrane spread down their dwarfed limbs… They keep themselves aloft on parchment wings; and send a tiny sound that suits their size. Houses they haunt, not woods; they loathe the light and flit by night."

Maenad Stamnos, National Archeological Museum of Naples, Italy

Woman working wool, Lekythos, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

Did you know?

• Another version accounts that the “Minyades” (daughters of Minyas) were driven mad by Dionysos/Bacchus. In a state of frenzy, Leukippe/Leucippe, would then have volunteered to sacrifice her little son, Hippasos/Hippasus, and with help of her sisters, she tore him apart.

• The extatic women in Dionysos’/Bacchus’ retinue were called “maenads”, literally “mad women”, cfr. “Starstruck”, “Cheers, “Stimuli”.

• Dionysos showed no mercy for the ones who disrespected him, cfr. “Run to Her”.

• More about Dionysos: cfr. “Any Worse Injury”, “Run to Her”, “Follow the Music”, “A Bad Review”, “Stakes and Snakes”, “The Drunken Sheperd”, “A Crowded Mountain”, “The Holy and the Ivy”, “A Mixed Marriage”, “The Colour Purple”, “Cheers!”, “Terrible Wisdom”, “Bad Girls”, “Too Good to be True”, “Divine Disorders”, “Stimuli”, “Moving Mountains”, “Taking Stock”.

• The Romans associated Dionysos/Bacchus with their ancient god of viticulture, Liber (“the free one”) or Liber Pater (“the free father”).