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Presenting a mythological creature with a modern day theme, Bacchante gives us a glimpse of the richness of Greek mythology.
Bacchante or Maenad or Bassarids, the child of the creature has many names in different mythologies or in different folklores. The ancient stories depict the creatures being the female followers of Dionysus- god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy. They are fierce and uncontrolled bacchantes were illustrated as the doers of the acts which please them without concerning anything else. As their god gives the boon of being in ecstasy and madness, they strive for such adventures all the time.
But, bacchantes are not the weak ladies. In the folklores, the strength their group is described that a group of them can uproot the trees and their eatery includes the wild animals as well as men, women and children often times. This indiscriminative mentality makes them fearful. Stories even say that Orpheus the well-known enchanting musician was also killed by bacchantes when he refused their offers for uncontrolled orgy.
Bacchantes had no fear and no guilt for anything. Their god himself could be understood as the promoter of such wildness because wine and ecstasy can put a person only in two regions: trance or madness.
The presented painting is of such bacchante and a satyr’s baby. Satyrs are the male who follows the aforementioned god of wine. Both groups follow the same cult. The major difference is that satyrs have goat’s legs and horns on the head. The presented mixture of them depicts the innocence of childhood which has kept her away from the adulthood’s mad orgies up until now.
The window she looks from is kind of a porthole of a ship or could be a window of an iron cage. But in both cases, it shows the need to keep her captive. Though, the broken curtain tells the other story.
