Massa, Francesco 2021 The article focuses on the presence of ecstatic dances in the celebration of mystery cults. Historiography has often emphasized the existence of a link between ecstasy (or possession) and wild dances in honor of a deity. The un- derlying idea is that the mysteries aimed to establish a personal relationship with the divine, which in turn was possible through ecstatic dances. After tracing the main stages of the modern debate, the article reflects on the role of poetic representations in the construction of a mystery ecstatic imaginary. Taking the late antique cults of the goddess Cybele as an example, the anal- ysis shows that these texts are not fit for providing a picture of the ritual practices celebrated during mystery cults. application/pdf https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/312848 https://folia.unifr.ch/documents/312848/files/2021_mystresdances_0.pdf ita http://digital.casalini.it/5189842 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0393-8417 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni. - 2021, vol. 87, no. 2, p. 491-506 Ancient religions Mystery cults Ecstatic dances Lucian of Samosata Cybele info:eu-repo/classification/udc/931 Danze estatiche e culti misterici. Miti storiografici e fonti antiche http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501