The idea of the divine and the immortality of the human soul - completely mystic in nature and conception - as it developed in classical Greece influenced all subsequent eras and transmitted to both East and West the fundamental principles of true mysticism regarding the essential unity of the divine and the human spirit.
Greece, through the ages, inherited a deep emotional religious devotion and practices that could evoke strange and mysterious images and ignite faith in an immortal life. The essence of this mystical worship, the religious "sacred madness" or frenzy as a widely significant religious phenomenon, is examined by Erwin Rohde in the second volume of his work Soul, grounding his views on the perceptions of Greek philosophers, dramatic poets, and the backdrop of popular beliefs of a people who processed - possibly due to their nature - the idea of the soul more than any other people of classical antiquity.
Maintaining the soul as a central core, Rohde thoroughly examines the origins, transformation, and ultimate decay of what should essentially represent Greek culture, an extraordinary dialectic with nature and spirit and a desperate quest for human perfection.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
