thyrsus

thumb|300px|Antinous holding the thyrsus while posed as Dionysus ([[Museo Pio-Clementino)]]

In Ancient Greece a thyrsus () or thyrsos (; ) was a wand or staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, artichoke, fennel, or by a bunch of vine-leaves and grapes or ivy-leaves and berries, carried during Hellenic festivals and religious ceremonies. The thyrsus is typically associated with the Greek god Dionysus (and his subsequent Roman equivalent Bacchus) as a symbol of prosperity, fertility, and hedonism.