Maenads

Women into Trees

 

Female followers of Bacchus (the god of wine), the Maenads were legendary for their wild, drunken behavior. When the great musician Orpheus wouldn’t play for them (he was depressed because his wife died), they tore him limb from limb. This angered the god, who liked to listen to Orpheus’ songs in his honor.

 

But Bacchus suffer'd not the heinous deed

Unpunish'd to remain; griev'd that the bard

Who sung his praises, thus was snatch'd away,

He bound the Thracian matrons, who the crime

Had perpetrated, fast by twisted roots

To earth as trees. He stretch'd their feet and toes,

Which follow'd him so swift, and struck their points

Deep in the solid earth: A bird ensnar'd

Thus finds his leg imprison'd by the wires

Hid by the crafty fowler, and his wings

Beats, while his fluttering draws more tight the noose.

So each, as firmly fixt to earth she stood,

Affrighted strove to fly, but strove in vain:

The flexile roots detain'd them; and fast ty'd,

Spite of their struggling bounds, while they explore

For toes and nails, and while they seek for feet,

They see the wood their taper legs conceal;

Their grieving hands to beat their thighs are rais'd;

Their hands strike solid wood: their shoulders, breasts,

Are also wood become. Their outstretch'd arms

Extended boughs appear'd, and boughs they were.