thyr·sus

(thûr′səs)

n. pl. thyr·si (-sī) Mythology

A staff tipped with a pine cone and twined with ivy, carried by Dionysus, Dionysian revelers, and satyrs.

[Latin, from Greek thursos.]

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.

thyrsus

(ˈθɜːsəs)

n, pl -si (-saɪ)

1. (Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a staff, usually one tipped with a pine cone, borne by Dionysus (Bacchus) and his followers

2. (Botany) a variant spelling of thyrse

[C18: from Latin, from Greek thursos stalk]

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

thyr•sus

(ˈθɜr səs)

n., pl. -si (-sī).

1. thyrse.

2. a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes twined with ivy leaves, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.

[1585–95; < Latin < Greek thýrsos plant stem, thyrsus]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

thyrsus - a dense flower cluster (as of the lilac or horse chestnut) in which the main axis is racemose and the branches are cymose

thyrse

flower cluster - an inflorescence consisting of a cluster of flowers

Translations

thyrse

Mentioned in

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They surround five main panels, in fluid cross-shapes: four maenads or bacchantes, each clutching a tambourine and a thyrsus, and at the very centre, a kneeling man being speared by a woman.

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Agave is so possessed during the murder--foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling back--that she doesn't recognize her child and ends up with his head impaled on top of her thyrsus. In the end, Agave's tragic recognition of what she's done destroys her in a scene so searing that, as Carson once noted when speaking about King Kreon in Antigone, Aristotle would have "underlined [it] with his highlighter pen." Lesson learned: Go with the gods.

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After Pentheus is torn apart by the Bacchae, his mother, Agave, returns to the city carrying the "head of a young lion" (her son, Pentheus) on a thyrsus. The director's requirement were that the duplicate head 1) needed to be a believable replica of the actor playing Pentheus, both from a distance and up close, 2) needed to appear to be screaming, 3) needed to "sound like wet meat" when dropped, and 4) needed to bleed onstage on demand (when the thyrsus was removed).

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