Healing Dionysos
Peter Meineck
Routledge eBooks July 23, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781003455707-9 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that cathartic performance can be traced across a long diachronic sequence, from Paleolithic and Neolithic shamanism through Bronze Age purification practices, archaic Greek concepts of performance and healing, and the mysteries, with the Homeric epics positioned before Athenian tragedy as sixth-century BCE texts carrying Bronze Age memories. |
Abstract
Inspired by Aristotle&s;s elliptical comments on catharsis in Poetics, scholarship since has been primarily interested in how Greek tragedy is, or is not, cathartic. Through the past eight chapters I have attempted to trace cathartic performance through Paleolithic and Neolithic shamanism, the cultural exchange of Bronze Age purification practices detected in epic, archaic Greek concepts of performance and healing and the application of psychological cathartic performance practices in the mysteries. In keeping with this diachronic approach, I placed the Iliad and Odyssey before Athenian tragedy with the understanding that the texts we have most likely came into their present form sometime in the sixth-century BCE reflecting both cultural memories from the Bronze Age and life in the archaic Greek world. Throughout this investigation I have sought out ancient voices from the world of performance, and we have already heard much on the subject of catharsis from tragic and comic playwrights.