Dionysos und die vordionysischen Kulte

Vjaceslav Ivanov (1866-1949), a poet born in Moscow, wrote a monumental work entitled »Dionysus and the Pre-Dionysian Cults« in which he demonstrated his multifaceted understanding of the history of Greek religion - as a poet, an explorer of myths, a philosopher, a religious philosopher and a scholar. Ivanov attempted to shed light on the chaos of the orgiastic local cults in Greece and sought to prove that the religion of Dionysus was deeply rooted in Greece, (before the discovery of the Linear B tablets with the name of Dionysus). In doing so, the author established surprising connections to Greek poetry, to Greek tragedy and to early Christianity as well. Ivanov wrote the text in Russian and spent more than a decade preparing the German edition. He died shortly before finishing his work, which was to have been published about 60 years ago. Though highly anticipated during his lifetime by scholars as diverse as Martin Buber, E.R. Curtius, and Hans Vaihinger, it was then forgotten. This is the first publication in a Western European language of this important contribution to the history of Greek religion.