feasts and sacrifices in honour of Bacchus, held every third year, and chiefly celebrated by wild distracted women, called Baccha. The chief solemnities were performed in the night, to conceal, perhaps, their shocking improprieties; and a mountain was generally chosen as the place of celebration. They were instituted by Orpheus; and from him are sometimes called Orphica. Authors are not agreed as to the derivation of the word; but if we consider the frantic proceedings of the Bacchanalians, ἐγκεφάλω, furor, bids fair for the true etymology. See BACCHANALIA.

Orgia, according to Servius, was a common name for all kinds of sacrifices among the Greeks, as ceremoniae was amongst the Romans.