Acknowledgments
The research presented in this book was possible thanks to the generous support of several institutions and the help of numerous people. It began as a byproduct of my research project âDionysian sacrifice and related rituals in myth, history and in the grey area between the twoâ financed by the National Science Centre (grant number 2018/31/D/HS3/00128) from 2019 onwards. The project started just before the COVID-19 pandemic, when, despite all the difficulties, I was able to work and live in Pisa as a visiting scholar at the LAMA centre at the Università degli studi di Pisa. However, it was not until my stay at the Freie Universität in Berlin in Summer 2021 (financed by the DAAD) that I discovered, during a random conversation with Emrys Bell-Schlatter, that the book I was writing was focused on Pentheus. With this in mind, I moved to Athens, where I spent a year as a member of the American School of Classical Studies. Subsequently I received funding from the University of Warsaw (IDUB programme) and the Humboldt Foundation, which financed my fellowship at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich in 2023â2024.
The list of people who inspired meâsometimes involuntarilyâat lectures, conferences, during casual conversations, over emails and WhatsApp chats includes Emrys Bell-Schlatter, Jan Bremmer, Nicoletta Candurra, Eleonora Colangelo, Susan Deacy, Pasquale Ferrara, Kuba Filonik, Susanne Gödde, Martin Hose, Yinchi Liu, Helena MarszaÅek, Vivienne McGlashan, Tomasz Mojsik, Neri Mounir, Maciej Paprocki, Fru Pintér, Lauri Reitzammer, Renate Schlesier, Georgia Sermamoglou-Soulmaidi, Shucheta Shegufta, Andrea Taddei, Kresho VukoviÄ, Sebastian Zerhoch, and many others. The final form of this book owes much to Paul Jarvis, who improved my style and made several priceless suggestions regarding its content, as well as to an anonymous reviewer.