Panoussi (2003, 109) notes that Catullus involves the theme of marriage by incorporating
Maenadism in his poem: through its liberation of the female,
Maenadism entails "a temporary negation of male authority," which shows resemblances with marriage rites.
Callirrhoe: dangerous
maenadism "Before the bar of Time this poem pleads guilty to
According to Henrichs,
maenadism, as a component of Dionysiac worship, insured the fruitfulness of the land and a stable and profitable economy.
However,
Maenadism was also associated with dangerously transgressive behavior that operated in contradistinction to the laws of the polis.
Henrichs, 'Greek
maenadism from Olympias to Messalina', HSCPh 82 (1978), 121-60, esp.
Indeed, the women in Robinson's poem resemble Grecian Maenads who were "associated with more threatening forces of nature, beyond masculine control: a community of women with the power to create and destroy." (26) Robinson's decision to align this image with the figure of the New Woman underscores Yopie Prins's observation that "
maenadism appealed powerfully to the imagination of many Victorians, caught up as they were in heated debate about 'The Woman Question'"(p.
Bremmer, `Greek
Maenadism Reconsidered', ZPE 55 (1984), 267ff., who closes his article with a comparison (p.