From what I know the god Dionysus was often depicted carrying a thyrsus. I'm having a hard time finding a lot of concrete information on exactly what this was.
Was it used as a weapon as well as a religious symbol? Or was it just a religious symbol like the papal ferula?
Are there any existing examples of an actual thyrsus?
What type of materials were they made out of?
Thank you for your time, and if you would like to share any interesting information about Dionysus I'd be open to reading it.
The Thyrsus was made from a staff of giant fennel, wound with ivy, and topped with a pine cone.
It was a phallic symbol. The pine cone (according to Euripides) had honey dripping from it when carried by the Bacchic maenads.
The Thyrsus was thought to combine symbology of the forest (pine cone) and the fields (fennel).
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Thyrsus.html
At one point in the mythology of Bacchus, he is said to have converted the Thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into weapons by concealing a spear point in the heads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyrsus
The pine cone may have also referenced wine (associated with Dionysus) as the resin of the pine was added to Greek wine (and still is in "Retsina")
Sometimes the Thyrsus is depicted with a bunch of vine leaves and grapes at the head instead of a pine cone.
In the incident where a spear point was concealed in the head, Horace and Ovid refer to being pierced with the point as inducing madness.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Thyrsus.html