drunkenness, riotous revelry
After the wine god Bacchus, Greek: Dionysos.
The Bacchanal was originally a secret wine festival that conquered southern Italy and Rome from the Greek cities. The Senate banned it in 186 BC. because of the excesses and crimes that accompanied it.
Bacchus had set himself the task of going about planting the vine and teaching the cultivation of wine to mankind. At the parties his entourage consisted of a procession of drunken, ecstatically dancing women, the Bacchantes.
> (see also Dionysian)
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