bac·chan·te

(bə-kăn′tē, -kän′-, -kănt′, -känt′)

n. Greek & Roman Mythology

A priestess or female votary of Bacchus.

[French, from Latin bacchāns, bacchant-; see bacchant.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bacchante

(bəˈkæntɪ)

n, pl bacchantes (bəˈkæntɪz)

1. (Classical Myth & Legend) a priestess or female votary of Bacchus

2. a drunken female reveller

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bac•chan•te

(bəˈkæn ti, -ˈkɑn-, bəˈkænt, -ˈkɑnt)

n.

a female bacchant.

[1790–1800; < French bacchante, feminine of bacchant bacchant]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

bacchante - (classical mythology) a priestess or votary of Bacchus

Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks

Roman mythology - the mythology of the ancient Romans

votary - a priest or priestess (or consecrated worshipper) in a non-Christian religion or cult; "a votary of Aphrodite"

Translations

вакханка

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"In truth," said Gringoire to himself, "she is a salamander, she is a nymph, she is a goddess, she is a bacchante of the Menelean Mount!"

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The praise of folly, as he went on, soared into a philosophy, and philosophy herself became young, and catching the mad music of pleasure, wearing, one might fancy, her wine-stained robe and wreath of ivy, danced like a Bacchante over the hills of life, and mocked the slow Silenus for being sober.

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It contained one of the precious stockings; and half opening it, I revealed to Sylvia's astonished eyes the cunning little frieze of Bacchus and Ariadne, followed by a troop of Satyrs and Bacchantes, which the artist had designed to encircle one of the white columns of that little marble temple which sat before me.

View in context

The 2ft 2in (64cm) high, painted terracotta figure of a dancing bacchante with what looks like a leopard at her feet was inscribed on the base "J Gibson 1812".

How a would-be garden ornament turned out to be lost work by Welsh master worth PS21,000

Swinburne's muse is here no longer the wild bacchante of earlier days; she treads a statelier measure, clothed to the point of decency, if not precisely in her right mind." (4) And Gerard Manley Hopkins growled in a 29 April 1889 letter to his friend Robert Bridges that Century was mere "rot about babies, a blethery bathos." (5)

The Ends of Rhyme: Swinburne's A Century of Roundels and Late-Victorian Rhyme Culture

The praise of folly, as he went on, soared into philosophy, and philosophy herself became young, and catching the mad music of pleasure, wearing, one might fancy, her wine-stained robe and wreath of ivy, danced like a Bacchante over the hills of life, and mocked the slow Silenus for being sober.

The Catholicity of beauty

Yet, since they have low self-esteem, they struggle to express these emotions and need for support 'in mature ways' and owing to this, they may even become manipulative in their attempts to gain others' support.11 When Dido suspects that Aeneas is going to leave her, her emotions spiral out of control and she is compared to a 'Bacchante'.12 She becomes intensely angry at Aeneas when she confronts him about leaving.

DIAGNOSING VERGIL'S DIDO: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

An undated sketch, but perhaps drawn in November, is entitled 'The Bacchante tolls the knell of passing day.' It is a tranquil scene, looking westwards from Walker's Ridge, where Hore was then posted, towards the sun setting over the sea.

George Hore's Gallipoli experience: a light horseman's record of the Gallipoli campaign--the 'Anzac Panorama' and its background

The boat was sighted aboard the British naval ship HMS Bacchante in 1881 by crew, including the Prince of Wales, later King George V.

Did Liston throw the Ali fight? ...& other unsolved mysteries

Mattem souriait sous sa grosse bacchante. Maniere de rassurer ses visiteurs.

Lounis Mattem tire sa reverence