Walter F. Otto (1874–1958)

With - for a German ;-) - beautiful prose and expressing true love for his subject, Walter F. Otto carries light into the Northern sphere. He so much is imbued with Greek spirit, that he sometime takes the liberty to reprimand old thinkers and men of letters for what he perceives as striving off the path of honouring the full splendour of Greek divinity.

I enjoyed this book a great deal but it is not light reading. It also helps if you know something about Dionysus before you read it, as this is a scholarly work on the god and assumes you have some knowledge of him already. I learned a lot but stayed a bit confused throughout. Now that I've finished it, however, I feel I have a good context for further reading about Dionysus. If you love Greek mythology, check this one out. Dionysus is a rather unusual character, being a god of dual natures show more and also the god of ecstasy and madness. His female attendants are also incredibly interesting. show less

This is really religious as much as historical writing, so I found it a little hard to get into. It provides a kind of theory to understand the Greek myths, though.

Classic work on Dionysus and still highly recommended.