The book of the modern English classical philologist Eric Robertson Dodds, “The Greeks and the Irrational” (1949), seeks to dispel the myth of the exceptional rationality of the ancient Greeks; Based on examples from the works of ancient Greek historians, philosophers, and poets, she shows the enormous importance of irrational moments in the life of ancient man. The author explores the attitude of the Greeks to the phenomenon of dreams, analyzes the various types of "fury" known to ancient people, makes a bold connection between Greek culture and northern shamanism, etc. Using psychological diagnostic methods on the scale of an entire culture, E. R. Dodds comes to generalizations affecting the foundations of human existence in the world, primarily modern man. As an appendix to the book, articles on maenads and theurgy are published that are directly related to the problem of the irrational. CONTENTS: Preface 5Chapter I. Apology of Agamemnon 10Chapter II. From a culture of shame to a culture of guilt 48Chapter III. Blessing of Fury 99Chapter IV. Dream images and cultural images 152Chapter V. Greek shamans and the origin of Puritanism 199Chapter VI. Rationalism and reaction to it in the classical era 259Chapter VII. Plato, the concept of the irrational soul and the conglomerate of traditions 298Chapter VIII. Fear of freedom 339Appendix I. Maenads 387Appendix II. Theurgy 407F. K. Cassidy. Afterword 455Index 471