ABSTRACT
The study of myths amounts to a sort of cultural archaeology where psychosocial phenomena can be interrogated to uncover constituents of the mind and human nature itself. In many myths Shiva, lord of the cosmic dance, naked ascetic and symbolized most commonly in the form of a phallus, bears a resemblance to Dionysus. Like the Hindu myth, there is a Greek creation myth that also tells of the creation of the Milky Way. The drug reverie had seemingly evoked an image of a feeding euphoria, a stately pleasure dome overflowing with milk and honey, a vision of paradise so powerful that Coleridge had set about writing the poem almost immediately upon regaining consciousness. The mead of honey bees, like the vine, became the intoxicants of Dionysus that symbolized the loss of his mother but the acquisition of the surrogate food of the gods. The conflation of the breast and needle is therefore intentional, and not merely a coincidence of editing.
