By:

• John Psathas

Availability

• This work has a recording

Programme Note

Draped in the skins of fawns, crowned with wreaths of ivy and carrying he thyrsos – a staff wound with ivy leaves and topped with a pine cone – the Maenads roamed the mountains and woods, seeking to assimilate the potency of the beasts that dwelled there and celebrating their god Dyonisos with song, music and dance.

The human spirit demands Dionysiac ecstasy; to those who accept it, the experience offers spiritual power. For those who repress the natural force within themselves, or refuse it to others, it is transformed into destruction, both of the innocent and the guilty. When possessed by Dionysos, the Maenads became savage and brutal. They plunged into a frenzied dance, obtaining an intoxicating high and a mystical ecstasy that gave them unknown powers, making them the match of the bravest hero.

John Psathas

Related Works

Performance History

	25 Apr 2004	Performed by Manos Achalinotopoulos, Vangelis Karipis and the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble at Paradiso, in Amsterdam
	28 May 2009	Performed by Manos Achalinotopoulos, Vangelis Karipis and the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble at Paradiso, in Amsterdam. This work was also broadcast on Radio New Zealand Concert in May 2009