The Ecstatic and the Archaic

The word ‘archaic’ derives from the Greek arkhaios , which in turn is related to the word archē , meaning ‘principle’, ‘origin’, or ‘cause’; the notion of ecstasy, or ekstasis , implies standing outside or beyond oneself, a self-transcendence. How these two concepts are articulated and co-implicated constitutes the core question underlying this edited collection, which examines both the present day and antiquity in order to trace the insistent presence of the ecstatic amid the archaic. Presented