#retinue

• Retinue — A large group of people accompanying a prominent person, a solemn procession, a sumptuous ceremony, or a wedding party; retinue, cortege, pomp. In a Romanian historical and folkloric sense, the term denotes all participants in traditional wedding or holiday rituals, as well as the noisy and picturesque manifestation of an organized group.
• Bacchante — A woman who belonged to the mystical retinue of the god Bacchus (Dionysus) and participated in his ritual festivals, seized by an ecstatic delirium and sacred frenzy. In a figurative and literary sense, the term describes a woman with a behavior of exuberant, passionate, or uninhibited sensuality, who lives her emotions with a wild intensity, reminiscent of the nymphs of classical antiquity.
• Bacchantes — The international spelling, of French and English origin, for the noun 'bacante'; the ecstatic women who accompanied Bacchus in his mythological travels and took part in his secret rituals. In modern texts of literary criticism, theater history, and philosophical essays, the term is used to symbolically designate primordial feminine forces, unbridled passionate behavior, or feminine characters in classical ancient tragedies.