A thematic study of the Greco-Roman deity Dionysos-Bacchus and his relationship with drugs, sex and ecstasy. 
 
This book traces the cult of the Greek god Dionysos (and his Roman form as Bacchus) from the ancient world to the present, focusing in particular on his relationship with three things that have persisted as human preoccupations: drugs, sex and ecstasy. These three interlinked experiences recur in the worship of the ancient god of wine, theatre and frenzied ritual, and are essential parts of Dionysos's mythological biography, worship and later literature. Through the works of such figures as occultist Aleister Crowley, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and writer Oscar Wilde, through nineteenth and twentieth-century paintings and contemporary rock bands, the author shows how the Dionysian legacy remains as present and vital to the modern reader as ever. 
 
Street: Green Magic Books, 2022. Paperback, 220 pages. New.