Plural of baccha; female followers or priestesses of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry.
From Latin bacchae, feminine plural of baccha, derived from Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. The word refers to the frenzied female devotees in Bacchic rituals and mystery religions.
The bacchae were wild, ecstatic women who participated in secret rituals dedicated to wine and nature—they terrified the male-dominated Greek and Roman societies so much that ancient writers portrayed them as dangerous and uncontrollable.
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