Dionysus and politics : constructing authority in the Graeco-Roman world / edited by Filip Doroszewski and Dariusz Karłowicz.

Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
1st ed.
Published/​Created
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021.
Description
1 online resource (xv, 215 pages) : illustrations, maps

Details

Subject(s)
Editor
Series
Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies [More in this series]
Summary note
"This volume provides the reader with the substantial evidence, presented here for the first time in a chronological manner, of the essential place that Dionysus occupied in Greek and Roman political thought. The eleven chapters that make up the volume are authored by an interdisciplinary team of scholars (including four top specialists in the field, Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Richard Seaford, Richard Stoneman and Jean-Marie Pailler) and cover the period from archaic Greece to the late Roman empire. The reader can therefore observe how the political ideas and motifs rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted, and developed in successive periods of history. The contributors reconstruct the political significance of Dionysus by examining different kinds of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art, and philosophy. They discuss the place of the god in the politics of Greek city-states, explore the long tradition of imitating Dionysus that ancient leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors, manifested in various ways, as well as demonstrate how the political role of Dionysus was reflected in Orphism and Neoplatonist philosophy. Dionysus and Politics provides an excellent introduction to a fundamental feature of ancient political thought which until now has been largely neglected by mainstream academia. The book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in ancient politics and religion"-- Provided by publisher.
Source of description
Description based on print version record.
Contents
  • Intro
  • Half Title
  • Series Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Figures
  • Contributors
  • Abbreviations
  • Introduction
  • Notes
  • Part I: Dionysus and the polis
  • 1. Dionysos, the polis and power
  • Dionysos Gigantomachos in the archaic and classical periods
  • Dionysos Gigantomachos in Pergamon
  • Bibliography
  • 2. The politics of Euripides' Bacchae and the preconception of irresolvable contradiction
  • 3. On the necessity of Dionysus: the return of Hephaestus as a tale of the god that alone can solve unresolvable conflicts and restore an inconsistent whole
  • Conflict between Hera and Hephaestus
  • 'Made him drunk with wine'
  • The wisdom of Dionysus and the tragedy of the world
  • The possibility of new bonds
  • 4. Alexander and Dionysus
  • The Macedonian background: Dionysus before Alexander
  • Nysa: Alexander finds Dionysus in India
  • Alexander's use of Dionysus
  • After Alexander
  • The anger of Dionysus
  • Part II: Dionysus in Rome
  • 5. Dionysos against Rome? The Bacchanalian affair: a matter of power(s)
  • The affair: a politico-religious question. Prodromes and the structure of a tale
  • The Bacchanalian affair: an exceptional piece in Livy's work
  • The Roman youth between family, city and Bacchanal
  • The SC, a test of historic faithfulness
  • Two objections
  • After the Bacchanals
  • 6. Augustus and the Neoi Dionysoi
  • Context
  • Dionysian panegyric
  • Fertility
  • Conclusion
  • 7. The state as crater: Dionysus and politics in Plutarch's Lives of Crassus, Antony and Caesar
  • Dionysiac balance
  • Three types of statesmanship
  • Crassus: nothing but water
  • Antony: nothing but wine
  • Caesar: wine mixed with water
  • Notes.
  • 8. Dionysus and legitimisation of Imperial Authority by myth in first and second century Rome: Caligula, Domitian and Hadrian
  • Conqueror of the East: the background to the tradition
  • Dionysus: Triumphator
  • Mark Antony: the New Dionysus
  • Caligula: the New Antony
  • Domitian: Flavian Bacchus
  • Hadrian: Neos Dionysos of the τεχνῖται
  • Hadrian in the company of Dionysus
  • Antinous: the boy of Dionysus
  • 9. The role of Bacchus/Liber Pater in the Severan religious policy: the numismatic and epigraphic evidence
  • Numismatic evidence
  • Epigraphic evidence
  • Appendix. Inscriptions
  • Part III: Late-antique reflection on Dionysus
  • 10. The rule of Dionysus in the light of the Orphic theogony (Hieroi Logoi in 24 Rhapsodies)
  • Hieroi Logoi in 24 Rhapsodies
  • Zeus, the creator of the world
  • Dionysus Zagreus: the myth in the Rhapsodies
  • Dionysus Zagreus: the myth outside the Rhapsodies (sources and discussions overview)
  • The reign of Dionysus
  • 11. Dionysus in the mirror of Late Antiquity: religion, philosophy and politics
  • Dionysus in Late Antiquity
  • Dionysus and Neoplatonism: metaphysics and aesthetics
  • Dionysus in late Roman politics and society
  • By way of conclusion
  • Index.
ISBN
  • 1-00-305099-9
  • 1-003-05099-9
  • 1-000-39241-4
  • 1-000-39242-2
OCLC
  • 1246577335
  • 1228230126
Other standard number
  • 10.4324/9781003050995
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