The HBO Shop is now selling True Blood Season 2 Ladies Cast T-Shirts featuring Bill Compton, Eric Northman, Sookie Stackhouse, Jason Stackhouse, Tara Thornton, Sam Merlotte and Maryanne Forrester. I’m sure you will agree that these t-shirts look fangtastic and many of you ladies would love to have Bill, Eric, Sam or Jason close to your heart.
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Greek Mythology defines Maenads as the female followers of Dionysus. A literal translation of the name means “raving ones” In Wikipedia the Maenads are said to be inspired by Dionysus “into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. In this state, they would lose all self control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and ritualistically hunt down and tear animals (and sometimes men and children) to pieces, devouring the raw flesh. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped by a cluster of leaves, weave ivy-wreaths around their heads, and often handle or wear snakes.”
If you remember the first time we saw Maryann she was in the woods, naked carrying a staff which would be her “thyrsus”. In the previous two episodes of True Blood we saw Maryann influence the patrons at Merlotte’s into an uncontrolled “frenzy” of dance, also putting a kind of aphrodisiac type spell over the crowd. Now the party at her house in the third episode made the party at Merlotte’s seem tame.
In the following paragraph from the hermetic fellowship it describes many of Maryann’s personality traits.
“The Maenads are called nurses and foster mothers — they not only nurse and mother the young God (referring to Dionysus), but young animals in the forest as well.
They have the power to make the Earth bloom and the wild animals come to them.”
The same document also lists the power of maenads as such:
· To awaken the God
· To run with the God
· To share His attributes
· To tame wild things by nursing them
· To call forth water and wine and milk and honey from the Earth
· To fight and not be harmed
· To destroy
· To prophesy
We have seen the nurturing side of Maryann in her relationship to Tara and Eggs. These are two people who were strays of society to some degree, we learned Eggs was homeless and Tara never had a mother who was emotionally there for her needs, she was left her entire life to fend for herself then re-abandoned when her mother saw herself as “saved”. We also saw Maryann‘s interaction (which more seemed like communication) with the pig at her house. Briefly we saw a picture at her pool which showed Pan with his human lover, maenads were known to be lovers of Pan and the Satyr which is described as a half man half goat creature.
The Question is why would she attack Sookie? Also why would she have killed Ms. Jeanette? The two things these women have in common is Tara. As for Ms. Jeanette I feel Maryann believes she was avenging Tara , in her confrontation with Tara’s mother she may have not physically ripped Tara’s mother’s heart out but her words were meant to. I am sure their is a whole other reason for her attack on Sookie we will have to watch more to find out(I love and HATE that everything in this show is a cliffhanger.)
And watch out Tara this women may be nurturing when you are on her good side,the other side well NOT so good.
To read more on Maenads and Dionysus information is available from the following sources
(photo credit: HBO inc.)
Christina Radish with IESB.net has been very busy interviewing several cast members from Alan Ball‘s hit HBO TV series True Blood and this time she had the opportunity to speak with Michelle Forbes who play the mysterious Maryann. It is a real treat to hear what insights Michelle can provide us into her character because up to this point in time all we know is there is something very strange about her but as to who or what she is we don know yet. Below is an excerpt from Ms. Radish’s interview with Michelle Forbes.
IESB: When and how did you know that you wanted to be an actor?
Michelle: As the story goes, I started off as a ballet dancer. I knew, pretty early on, that I needed another form of expression, and it just seemed that acting, and this idea of playing pretend and telling stories, was really fascinating to me. It was a natural progression, out of the dance world and into the world of theater and cinema.
IESB: How did you originally become a part of True Blood? Was it just through a regular audition?
Michelle: I came in towards the end of the first season, and it was a meeting like any other, to be honest. The show hadn’t aired yet, so I wasn’t aware of it. I hadn’t read the books. It was just that new vampire show on HBO with Alan Ball. That’s what I knew. There’s no great story about that initial meeting, I have to say.
IESB: Have you read any of the books since then?
Michelle: After everything was signed and sealed, I do remember running out and buying all of the books. I read the first one, pretty darn quickly, and then I decided to stop reading them because I wanted to tell the story that we were telling and that Alan was telling. And, I’m glad that I did because, although he uses a basic geography of the book, the story is actually his own, as well as Charlaine Harris’. An adaptation is an adaptation, it can’t just be a translation because you have different time constraints, etc.
To read Ms. Radish’s in-depth interview with Michelle click here.
SOURCE: IESB.net
(Photo credit: HBO Inc.)
