292 THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
Maenad. Interior of an Attic kylix by the Brygos painter, ca. 480 B.C.; diameter llV 4 in.
This lively white-ground painting (the cup is signed by the potter Brygos) shows a mae-
nad in violent motion, holding a thyrsus in her right hand and a small leopard in her
left. A leopardskin is fastened over her dress and a wreath of serpents encircles her head.
(Antikensammlungen, Munich. Photograph courtesy ofHirmer Verlag, Munchen.)The essential characteristics of Dionysiac religion are an ecstatic spiritual re-
lease through music and dance,^14 the possession by the god of his followers, the
rending apart of the sacrificial animal, and the eating of the raw flesh (omophagy,
a kind of ritual communion, since the god was believed to be present in the vic-
tim). The religious congregation (the holy thiasus) was divided into groups, of-
ten with a male leader for each, who played the role of the god. The Bacchae,