(Gr. Macva&es, frenzied women), the female attendants of Dionysus. They are known by other namesBacchae, Thyiades, Clodones and Mimallones (the last two probably of Thracian origin) - all more or less synonymous.
See the exhaustive articles by A. Legrand in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiquites and A. Rapp in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; also editions of Euripides, Bacchae (e.g. J. E. Sandys).