In Greek mythology, the thiasus was originally the procession of Dionysus, composed of the maenads, or half human and half animal figures like the sileni and satyrs. The marine thiasos, on the other hand, refers to a composition of mythological figures, linked to the sea, that surrounded Poseidon.
The term thiasus generally referred to a group or community of worship; the Thiasus of Lesbos led by the priestess Sappho, for example, was linked to the devotion to Aphrodite, taken up by young people to be educated in love and marital life.
