Attic red-figure calyx krater depicting Dionysos and a Maenad, c. 350-325 BC. Dionysus' female followers are referred to as Maenads or Bacchantes (Bacchants in some cases). With the other followers, they constituted the thiasus, a group that was devoted to Dionysus. Maenads often carried a thyrsus, a ceremonial staff topped with a pine cone and often with a fillet attached to it. They crowned their heads with ivy wreaths or bryonies and their garments usually included fawn or leopard skin.