Maenads are nymphs who eccentrically follow Dionysus/Bacchus.

The Heroes of OlympusEdit

The Demigod DiariesEdit

Leo Valdez and the Quest for BufordEdit

The Maenads skip barefooted into a mall parking lot sized clearing in the forest while Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean look for Buford. While the Maenads laughed, and sung each other around spinning until they became dizzy, a drakon appears though the Maenads don't seem to notice at first. After some time, one of the girls notice the drakon squealing in delight and skipping toward the monster with the other girls in pursuit. One of the Maenads hopefully asks if the drakon is Dionysus, but ends up dancing out of the way of the drakon's flames. The drakon then catches the Maenad's arm in it's mouth, though the Maenad demonstrates remarkable strength by pulling her arm free of the drakon's mouth along with several broken teeth. The Maenad scolds the drakon for not being Dionysus and then insists upon the drakon joining the party. Squealing in delight, all the Maenads threw themselves at the drakon. Their cheerful delight turned into vicious snarling as they attacked the drakon with long, white talons and elongated wolf like fangs. The Maenads ripped at the drakon slowly until its spirit returned to Tartarus. The Maenads then find Leo, Jason, and Piper and ask if one of them is Dionysus. When Leo pretends to be Dionysus, Babette digs deeper until the Maenads are aware that Leo is pretending. On the command of Babette, the Maenads go for the "unbelievers" until Leo shoots fire at the group. The Maenads, however, laugh dancing on their bare feet through the flames. The Maenads then give chase to the three demigods, following Leo and Piper back into Bunker 9. They enter Bunker 9, but Piper distracts them by ordering them to dance and party. Leo creates a trap made with streamers and music, and traps them in a gold cage made of Hephaestus' gold netting (that originally trapped Ares and Aphrodite). Chiron and Argus decide to ship them off to Atlantic City, to get partying out of their system.

Known MaenadsEdit

• Babette
• Bambi
• Muffy
• Buffy
• Candy
• Trixie

Appearance Edit

The Maenads look like teenage girls with tunic dresses of loose purple and red silk with leaves tangled in their hair, and tiny vipers adorning some of their heads. Some carried large twisted, wooden branches topped with a giant pine cone with some wrapped with living snakes. ^[1] Their eyes were severely bloodshot, their lips were redder than normal, and their skin was webbed with bright capillaries.^[2] When they get overly excited, their fingernails turn into long, white talons, and their teeth elongate into wolf like fangs. ^[3]

TriviaEdit

• Their name literally means 'raving ones', justified by their irrationally wild behavior.
• Maenads are also seen in True Blood as a an unexplained demon or a monstress, who are supposed to sacrifice shapeshifters in order to please the god, Dionysus.

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ The Demigod Diaries, page 139
2. ↑ The Demigod Diaries, page 145
3. ↑ The Demigod Diaries, page 141