A thyrsos is a staff entwined with ivy leaves and tipped with a pine cone.
In Greek myth, Dionysus and the satyrs carry them. On coins and vases, Dionysus is often holding a thyrsos in one hand and a kantharos in the other, wearing a crown of ivy and riding a panther. The Maenads also carried them as they ran in drunken ecstasy through the forest.
Thyrsos is also a holy martyr in the Greek Orthodox church. His holy day is December 14.