The Awakening of the Soul

An exhaustive and unprecedented journey, blending essay and creation, around the figures of Dionysus and Ariadne through religion, art, science, and philosophy.

Few motifs are as powerful in the history of thought, the arts, and literature as that of Princess Ariadne, abandoned while asleep on the island of Naxos and awakened by a god, Dionysus, who will make her his wife and grant her an unforgettable apotheosis.

In ancient Greece, Dionysus occupied an ambivalent place among the most important Greek deities for the community. He embodied reconciliation and collective cohesion, but also the ecstasy that made humans lose individual consciousness, bringing them closer to the great mystery of the world. Between the visible and the invisible, the margins and the center, the masculine and the feminine, the human and the divine, Dionysus's crucial role is also confirmed in his modern reception, especially since Nietzsche. However, the multifaceted god often resists the many rationalizations, both past and present, that have been attempted to explain him.

This book proposes to explore Dionysus through Ariadne, particularly in what is relevant to modern man, and in his influence on literature, art, and thought. Even today, his myths evoke the always elusive attempt to understand the mystery behind the human experience, as embodied in the episode of Ariadne's awakening.