Electra

In the ancient Greek story of the Odyssey, Electra is the daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and his wife, Cassandra. Electra is also the title character of a play by Sophocles, and a play by Euripides.

When Agamemnon returned from Troy, having led the Greeks to victory, Cassandra and her lover, Aegisthus, murdered Agamemnon. Aegisthus was also going to murder Agamemnon's son, Orestes, but a servant took him away and hid him. When Orestes was grown, the oracle of Delphi told Orestes he must kill Cassandra and Aegisthus in revenge for Agamemnon's death. Orestes went to his father's tomb to perform a ritual for the dead. At the tomb, he encountered Electra, who had also come to perform a ritual for their father. Electra may have participated in killing Cassandra and Aegisthus.

English word: Like several other mythic terms, Electra survives in an English phrase, Electra complex, the term Carl Jung gave to a theory developed by Sigmund Freud. In this theory, a young girl wants to kill her mother and marry her father. This theory is the female counterpart of the Oedipus complex. Electra also appears in the name of various corporations.

Bacchus

Bacchus was the ancient Roman god of wine and drunkenness (Greek, Dionysus). The Romans celebrated drunkenness because it liberated them from social norms. At first, the celebrants of Bacchus were all women. Later, men were also admitted to their revelries, which then became much more frequent.

The women revelers were called Bacchantes, (Maenads in Greek) and their celebrations were called Bacchanals. The women became so wild, they hunted wild animals and tore them apart with their bare hands. In a play by the Greek poet Euripides, Maenads murdered the king of Thebes, and tore him apart. His own mother tore off his head, thinking he was a lion.

Eventually, the Bacchanals became so wild and excessive, the Roman Senate banned them.

English word: Both Bacchantes and Bacchanal have survived in English. However, is usually used to refer to ancient Roman worshippers, while bacchanal is used in a more figurative sense for modern wild, drunken parties.