Horned Maenad helmet
Maryann Forrester wore a bull's head helmet when she transformed into a Maenad. The bull helmet's origins are unknown but it's possibly one of the many artifacts acquired by Maryann in ancient times, like her sacrificial dagger and the bird lady statue. The helm sometimes appeared to make angered facial expressions giving the impression that it takes a life on its own. This was actually commented by director Michael Cuesta himself to be a neat effect they created for these instances.
The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900 BC who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from blunt objects, sword blows and arrows in combat. Maryann wore her helmet as part of the rituals she performed to control the citizens of Bon Temps and send them into a drunken frenzy. Not only she represented Dionysus but she was hoping that this would call him forth. It was usually placed upon her head by Daphne Landry at least in the timeline of the show. Once the helmet was on, her transformation into a Maenad began to take over, with Maryann usually digging her hands into the dirt and transforming them into talons.
In the mini-episode of "Drop of True Blood" , a web-only series that was created during the hiatus between Season 2 and Season 3, the helm gets utterly destroyed by Sam. On the night of Maryann's death, Sam drives back to his doorster with the helmet at the back of his bronco; a first-place trophy of sorts. As soon as he gets off the vehicle he goes into his trailer, grabs a toolkit then attempts to break the helm into pieces with a hammer, pliers and a sledge hammer but in vain. He then puts the mask under the wheel of his car, running it over and over again until it finally smashes to smithereens. As a finishing touch to Maryann's reign, Sam shifts into his collie form and pisses all over the crushed remains; signifying the end of this chapter in his life. It's unknown what happened to the rest of Maryann's belongings but it is assumed that they met the same fate either by Sam or Sookie.
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