ABSTRACT
Mania involves a sense of loss of control or being led by an external power. It could be self-induced or forced on an individual, violent or quiet, transitory or lasting, illuminating or depriving one of his or her intellect, absolutely absorbing or allowing contact with the environment, divine or bestial. In any event, there is no doubt that through the Aristotelian texts, Plato's insight on the ambiguities of mania, the source of both anguish and super-human inspiration, had a profound effect on the European culture. Phenomena associated with divine mania were prominent in Greek religion. Distancing themselves in myths from the 'invention' of the ecstatic practices, the Greeks cognitively resolved the problem of their self-perception as citizens of the decorous civilised world, who only surrendered to the irresistible will of the foreign gods requiring ecstatic worship. Thus, everyone could enjoy blissful self-abandon to the fascinating rites of the Corybantes, Cybele, Sabazius, and Dionysus.
