[thur-suh
s] 
[-sahy] . | 1. | Botany. a thyrse. |
| 2. | Greek Antiquity. a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes twined with ivy and vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries. |
| thyr·sus (thûr'səs) n. pl. thyr·si (-sī)
[Latin, from Greek thursos.] |
| thyrse (thûrs) Pronunciation Key
A dense inflorescence in which the side branches end in cymes, as in the lilac. Also called thyrsus. See more at inflorescence. |
thyrsus
in Greek religion, staff carried by Dionysus, the wine god, and his votaries (Bacchae, Maenads). In early Greek art the Bacchae were usually depicted as holding branches of vine or ivy, but after 530 BC the staff to which the name thyrsus properly applied began to be shown as a stalk of giant fennel (narthex) segmented like bamboo, sometimes with ivy leaves inserted in the hollow end. Bacchae were depicted and described using them as weapons. Scholars differ on the extent to which these staffs can be explained as symbols of fertility.
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