Thyrsus
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Image:Bacchante with Thyrsus.gif In Greek mythology, a thyrsus (thyrsos) was a giant fennel staff covered with ivy vines and leaves and topped with a pine cone. The thyrsus is a composite symbol of the forest (pine cone) and the farm (fennel). It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus, with the fennel representing the shaft of the penis and the pine cone representing the "seed" issuing forth. It was associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads. It is explicitly attributed to Dionysus in Euripides's play The Bacchae as part of the costume of the Dionysian cult. "[. . .] To raise my Bacchic shout, and clothe all who respond/ In fawnskin habits, and put my thyrsus in their hands -/ The weapon wreathed with ivy-shoots [. . .]." Here it is made to seem not merely ceremonial, but as a weapon. Euripides also writes, "There's a brute wildness in the fennel-wands -/ Reverence it well." Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a wine cup, another symbol of Dionysus, forming a male-and-female combination like that of the royal scepter and orb.
