Myths, Folklore & Symbolism: Thyrsus

Thyrsus "Common especially in antiquity, it is a staff with pine branches, crowned with a pine cone and entwined with ivy and grape leaves. It is a symbol of fertility and immortality and it was used in celebrations of mother goddesses, in honor of Hermes (Mercury), and in the Dionysian mysteries in Eleusis. It is also an attribute of Dionysus and of the maenads. In Christian art the thyrsus is a symbol of vegetative vital energy or of heathendom." (Herder)