I have a special fondness for satyrs, those horny, irrepressible drunkards unbound by mortal conventions. But maenads, the female followers of Dionysos, also abound in Greek art and are no less fascinating…
This cup is one of the great masterpieces attributed to the Brygos Painter (made in Athens, found in Vulci, now in Munich), with a raving maenad occupying the entire tondo. She is everything a maenad should be: her hair is streaming and garments billowing with her energetic movement. She wears a leopard skin and brandishes a thyrsos (that spiky-headed staff, often used to fend off over-inquisitive satyrs). In her altered state she can handle snakes (one is used as a fillet in her hair) and beasts – the hapless little panther in her left hand still seems alive and well…often wild animals are torn limb from limb and occasionally the odd mortal man is dismembered.
Unlike satyrs who are overtly half-man, half-ass (emphasis on the ass), there is a certain ambiguity in the case of maenads – are they mortal women gone wild, or some form of otherworldly nymph? (Modern and ancient terminology is equally problematic).
Perhaps this was part of the appeal for the Greek (male) audience: under the influence of Dionysos, even the most staid hausfrau could turn wanton and violent. Exciting! And in this light, I like to see them as fantasies rather than fantastical – playing up this idea of the intrinsically dangerous female unleashed.
