Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . - married to the god. On the third day, asacrifice was offered to the Chthonian Hermes and to the .souls ofthe dead. Last came the great IJionysia, which were celebratedin the month Elaphebolion. and at which new comedies and trag-edies were represented. 2. The Triateric Dionjsia, which were cele-brated every third year in the middle of winter. The performerswere women and girls (called in Greek, Mmnmiei; in l^alm, Bacchator Bacc/icintes), and the orgies were held at night, on the moun-tains, with blazing torches an
Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . - married to the god. On the third day, asacrifice was offered to the Chthonian Hermes and to the .souls ofthe dead. Last came the great IJionysia, which were celebratedin the month Elaphebolion. and at which new comedies and trag-edies were represented. 2. The Triateric Dionjsia, which were cele-brated every third year in the middle of winter. The performerswere women and girls (called in Greek, Mmnmiei; in l^alm, Bacchator Bacc/icintes), and the orgies were held at night, on the moun-tains, with blazing torches and the wildest enthusiasm. Thismystic solemnity came from Thrace, and its institution is refeired BACCIO DELLA PORTA—BACHELOR. 44B to Bacchant. When it was adopted in Greece, cannot be exactlydetermined. It is earliest met within Ba?otia, particularly at Thebes,where the Citha-ron was the scene ofcelebration. An imi)ortant place inconnection with it is also Parnassus,on the lii>;iiest summit of which thewomen of Attica and Delphi cele-brated nocturnal orgies in honor ofB. and Apollo. The Msenades orBacchantes were clad on the occa-sion in fawn-skins, swung about thethyrsus, made a great noise withclapping of hands, and danced wildlywith streaming hair. In this ecstaticsolemnity, the god himself was rep-resented by the victim sacred to hiui,the ox, which the Majnades in theirfury tore in pieces. In the mostancient times, even human sacrificeswere not uncommon. Descriptionsof these wild and terrible rites arenot unfrequent in the poets. 3. TheBacchanalia of later times, the foun-dation of which was laid in Athens, during the Peloponnesianwar, by the introduction of foreign rites. From Greece tlicj-were carried to I
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