Altar to Zagreus: Dionysus in the Cantos of Ezra Pound

This book departs from theoretical issues related to the figure of Dionysus and proceeds to demonstrate the thematic, tropic and structural significance of Dionysus in Pound's work. In this context, two contrasting models, one being Homeric and Apollonian and the other Ovidian and Dionysian, have been explored to argue for Pound's commitment to the metamorphicity of the Ovidian model. The book likewise demonstrates that Dionysus, even through absence, is paradoxically present in The Cantos. Following Pater's insight that the provenance of tragedy lies in the urbanization of Dionysus, the book demonstrates that the associations Pound makes between the figure of Dionysus and the city of Venice represent the first seeds of tragedy in Pound's modernist epic. Dionysus, it is further contended, is indeed crucial to the rendition of climactic tragedy in The Cantos. The book concludes with the inevitability of paradox and paralogy in any approach to the figure of Dionysus. Altar to Zagreus will prompt Poundian scholars to pursue further investigation into the uses of myth in Pound's work. The book may also provide the general reader with an illuminative approach to Pound's poetry.