Savage Energies: Lessons of Myth and Ritual in Ancient Greece

by Walter Burkert

Book Overview

We often think of classical Greek society as a model of rationality and order. Yet as Walter Burkert demonstrates in these influential essays on the history of Greek religion, there were archaic, savage forces surging beneath the outwardly calm face of classical Greece, whose potentially violent and destructive energies, Burkert argues, were harnessed to constructive ends through the interlinked uses of myth and ritual.

For example, in a much-cited...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022610043X
• ISBN13: 9780226100432
• Release Date: October 2013
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.9" x 8.9"