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Ms. Pasternak had met Mr. Reynolds years earlier, when she curated his work at a gallery in Hartford, Conn., and appeared as a one of the maenads in “The Banquet.”

In high school I frequently conflated the Furies with maenads, female worshippers of Dionysus who whipped themselves into a primal ecstasy before ripping apart a sacrifice, be it a bull or a man.

Their only chance for survival is if Diane can undo what modernity has done to them in turning their rightful maenad madness into mere home-improvement mania.

Other mythological figures, like cupids, maenads and satyrs, also appeared in the public part of the house “as though part of a Dionysian retinue,” he said, referring to the Greek god of wine and revelry.

Like maenads, they set upon men who have wandered onto the property, giving chase, “their bare arms are covered with scratches, their legs streaked with rainwater.”