Divine Mania Alteration of Consciousness in Ancient Greece Yulia Ustinova ij Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK Contents Preface VUl Acknowledgements Xlll Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 Socrates on divine mania 1 Mania: words and images 2 Mania as mental disorder: its definition and characteristics 5 Madness in context: the importance of historicism 13 Alterations of consciousness between unity and diversity: aspects of methodology and terminology I7 The scope of this book and its sources 29 1 i Prophetic mania 55 Inspired prophecy: definitions, ancient and modern 55 Inspired divination in Greece 58 Prophetic priests 58 Laymen who received oracular messages in sanctuaries 67 Unaffiliated seers 71 Inspired prophets as instruments of the gods 7 5 Inspired prophecy in Greece as compared to other cultures 78 Prophecy in Mesopotamia in comparison with Greece 79 Prophecy in ancient Israel in comparison with Greece 81 Conclusions 85 2 Telestic mania and near-death experiences 113 Mastery initiations 115 The nature of the initiate's experience I: mania for mania's sake or for its treatment 117 The Corybantic rites 118 Bacchic and Sabaziac initiations 122 vi Contents The nature of the initiate's experience II: paradosis and epopteia 126 The core experience in the 'great mysteries,' mania, and alteration of consciousness 129 Techniques of 'getting ready' for the core experience of mystery initiations and mania 132 Mystery rites and near-death experiences 136 Conclusions 143 3 Bakcheia 169 Dionysus and individual madmen in myths 170 Dionysus and destructive collective mania in myth 172 Bakchai and bakchoi in myth, poetry, and art 174 Bakcheia and gender 179 The historicity of the savage rites 181 The dynamics of the thiasos 187 Bakcheia from a comparative viewpoint 192 Aspects of physiology and psychology of bakcheia 194 Conclusions 197 4 Mania on the battlefield and on the march 217 Combat fury: Ly ssa 217 Psychological injuries and combat stress: Phobos 224 Panic 227 Battlefield epiphanies 231 Conclusions 233 5 Nympholepsy 245 Nympholepsy, panolepsy, and vatic abilities 245 Nympholepts and their caves 248 Conclusions 255 6 Poetic mania 265 The Muses, memory, and inspiration 265 Music and alteration of consciousness 266 The nature of poetic inspiration: Plato 268 The nature of poetic inspiration: Aristotle 270 Modem poets and musicians and their inspiration 272 Enthusiastic audiences 276 Conclusions 279 Contents vii 7 Erotic mania 294 Plato on the erotic mania 294 Greeks on eros as mania 298 Blessings of the erotic mania? 302 Conclusions 305 8 The philosopher's mania and his path to truth 313 Socrates' mania 315 Plato's mystical experiences 322 Mania and Archaic sages: Epimenides, Aethalides, and Hermotimus 328 Mania and Presocratic philosophers: Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Empedocles 330 Shamans and mystics? 337 Coda: Democritus the mad philosopher 341 Conclusions 342 Epilogue: perspectives on the divine mania 370 Index 381 .