as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by him into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken  intoxication . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenad  Furious Maenad,carrying a  thyrsus  and a panther,with a snake rolled up over her head.Tondo of an  Ancient Greek Attic white-ground  kylix  490-480 BC