In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the bakchoi were the branches of initiates that carried out the procession along the Sacred Way, the twenty-one kilometer hike from Athens to Eleusis.Walter Burkert, Homo necans: interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen (Berolini: DeGruyter, 1972), pp. 306–307. The term is sometimes distinguished from mystai (initiate), specifically the Eleusinian initiate, only for the purpose of emphasis since the two words are considered synonymous. The bacchoi was considered a transformed state after performing initiations and this was described by Euripides in the case of his Cretans, who proclaimed they were made holy – mystai and bacchoi – after cleansing themselves through initiation.
Bacchoi is sometimes attached to other terms. For instance, there is Iacchoi-Bacchoi, where Iacchos served as a synonym for Bacchus.
See also List of Greek deities
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