Abstract:
Dionysus is the most powerful and paradoxical archetype to emerge from Greek mythology. One of the characteristics that always seem to recur in descriptions of his persona is his ambiguous nature. He emanates from the realm beyond all rational comprehension, and invariably his appearances in modern literature occur at the moment that all the facades of ego-conscious reality break down. This analysis examines the appearance of Dionysus in modern literature in a number of works and writers. Each in their own way demonstrates that Dionysus makes his most momentous appearances once the walls of ego-conscious existence have been breached.