A pair of maenads, Illustration from Notor's Lysistrata, 1898 (litho)

In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones." ; Lysistrata is a comedy by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace—a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society; translated by Charles Marie Zévort and Published by The Librairie Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1898; Reproduction of vase illustration from Bourbon Museum, Naples, Italy;