Has anyone read any really good books on Dionysus? I'm looking for good historical research about his nature and how he was worshipped/contacted by the ancients. I am not looking for some neopagan rehash garbage about what a wonderful drunk version of Jesus he was/is.
I know that there were human sacrifices made to him etc. I want to understand his festivals, his lore etc. as researched by serious scholarly types.
If anyone can point me to anything I'd appreciate it. Even if it to someone else that may be able to help, it would be a start.
5 comments:
http://www.amazon.com/Dionysus-Myth-Walter-Friedrich-Otto/dp/0253208912
This one's old, but a classic. All check out Burkert's Greek Religion, of course.
Thank you. Added to my wish list. The Pan book broke my book budget for a month (or two) but I will get to this. There is a debt of service that will begin being repaid through the reading of its pages.
A long long time ago, when I was reading my first books of wicca and pseudo-pagan stuff, I invoked dionisius.
I will not confess the most embarassing details, but let me just tell you that I got "high" for almost two weeks.
:-)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3848348/Wheeler-Dionysos-and-Immortality
is a scan of a book from 1898. Should be pretty light on the wallet :-)
Click the download button and then choose PDF.
Try "Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets" by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston. Amazon suggested it and i haven't been disappointed. This is not your Hesoid/Homerian myth but something quite different.
Daddy is Zeus but momma is a big surprise, as his death at the hands of the Titans.
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