rigueur-dionysienne:The Lenaia (Ancient Greek: Λήναια) was an annual At
rigueur-dionysienne: The Lenaia (Ancient Greek: Λήναια) was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. (from Wikipedia) ‘…a series of vases indicating Dionysian worship; aptly named the Lenaian Vases. These vases are adorned with a myriad of different, if not dissimilar images variously portraying women dancing and making music, women drinking and pouring wine from a stamnos, women holding thyrsoi, and images of satyrs. The ritual depicted is one focused on women becoming maenads through the replication of traditional maenadic acts; dancing, singing, drinking wine. This would explain the presence of satyrs and thyrsoi in some of the vases; they are there to indicate the transformation process. The process would function as a means of worshipping Dionysus in his role as god of the maenads. Such a ritual would fit in with our knowledge of other Greek festivals, which involved transformative rites intended to convert the initiates into the characters of a mythic story.’ Peter Swallow, Reconstructing the Lenaia -- source link