"Who is Dionysus? The god of ecstasy and terror, of wildness and of the most blessed deliverance, and the mad god whose appearance sends mankind into madness. In this classic study of the myth and cult of Dionysus, Walter F. Otto recreates the theological world of ancient Greek religion. Otto's provocative starting point is to accept the immanent reality of the gods. To understand the cult of Dionysus, it is necessary to reimagine the original vision of the god. Otto challenges us to understand the power of this vision not as a bloodless abstraction but as a force animating belief, to see the myth and art of Dionysus as a passionate search to regain the power of the lost gof."--Back cover.

The first English verse translation of the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis

The internationally renowned Jungian analyst Lopez-Pedraza diagnoses the psychological illness at the core of modern society--the loss of embodied soulfulness in people's lives. In this study of the Greek god Dionysus, he offers insight for a cure. This book may be worth several years in psychotherapy, if one takes its message to heart. Dismemberment and cannibalism, Prometheus and Titanic nature, mystical experience, the communal aspect of Dionysiac worship, jazz, flamenco, and bullfighting are among the many twists and turns taken in this essay that wends its way through issues of the body and emotion to open hidden doors for psychotherapy and to cast new light on post-modern humanity.

With a clue from the oracle Pythia, the Olympians head to the Land of Grapes where they encounter Dionysus, who they suspect is also an Olympian with great powers, but he could turn out to be a hindrance in their attempt to dethrone King Cronus.

The Drunken Silenus is a book that is as hard to categorize as it is to put down--an enlightening and mesmerizing blend of philosophy, history, and art criticism. Morgan Meis begins simply enough, with a painting by the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens of the figure from Greek mythology who is mentor to Dionysus, god of wine and excess of every kind. We learn who this obscure, minor god is--why he must attend on the god who dies and must be re-born and educated all over again--and why Rubens depicted him not as a character out of a farce, but as one whose plight evokes pity and compassion. The narrative spirals out from there, taking in the history of Antwerp, bloody seventeenth-century religious wars, tales of Rubens's father's near-execution for sleeping with William of Orange's wife, Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy and the impossibility of there being any meaning to human life, and the destruction of all civilization by nefarious forces within ourselves. All of this is conveyed in language that crackles with intelligence, wit, and dark humor--a voice that at times sounds a bit tipsy and garrulous, but which ultimately asks us to confront the deepest questions of meaning, purpose, and hope in the face of death and tragedy.

For many people Dionysos is an obscure Greek god of wine and theatre. For others he is so much more. The Dionysian Spirit examines, in an easy and accessible form, the essence of what Dionysos is all about, both as a deity and as a cultural and social force. It looks at the relation of Dionysos with his opposite number Apollo. The twin gifts of Apollos and Dionysos are ekstasis (ecstasy) and entheos (enthusiasm) and have informed and enlivened our lives and cultures from ancient times right to the present day and beyond. The Dionysian Spirit - like the art of a good party - has always been with us and now, in many ways, we need it more than ever. Contents: Devotional to Dionysos / The Visualisation / The Myths of Dionysos / Dionysian Heroes / Dionysos Around the World / Dionysos Across The Millenium / Dionysos Goes Forth

A mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe. Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind? Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.