"We often think of classical Greek society as a model of rationality and order. Yet as Walter Burkert demonstrates in these influential essays on the history of Greek religion, there were archaic, savage forces surging beneath the outwardly calm face of classical Greece, whose potentially violent and destructive energies, Burkert argues, were harnessed to constructive ends through the interlinked uses of myth and ritual.".

"With Savage Energies, Burkert convincingly shows how the lessons of myth and ritual interacted to construct - and reconstruct - classical Greek society. Classicists, historians of religion, and mythologists should all benefit from his insights."--BOOK JACKET.