The Romans of the Decadence (detail), by Thomas Couture, 1847. Musée d'Orsay.

The Romans of the Decadence (detail), by Thomas Couture, 1847. Musée d’Orsay.

Intoxication

Volume VI, Number 1 | winter 2012

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Drunken Silenus supported by Satyrs by Anthony van Dyck.

Preamble

Alms for Oblivion

By Lewis H. Lapham

“One should always be drunk,” proclaimed poet Charles Baudelaire. But the question remains, drunk with what?

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Dionysos and his Thiasus, from the circle of the Antimenes Painter.

Fabled Powers

By Sven Birkerts

For an artist, a day of successful inspiration is also a day a systematic intoxication.

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Map

Indigenous Intoxicants

Getting high, around the world.

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Miscellany

Isolated from opium by the German chemist F. W. A. Sertürner around 1804, morphine (named after Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep and dreams) was used to treat opium addicts. Invented by Bayer Pharmaceuticals in 1898, heroin (derived from the Greek word for hero) was used to treat morphine addicts.

c. 1095 | Europe

The Vision Thing

Pope Urban II summons the armies of the Lord.More

c. 3760 BC | Eden

Ye Shall Be As Gods

The temptation of Eve.More

1836 | Pacific Ocean

Dry Ship, Wet Ocean

Aboard a ship without a drop to drink.More

Charts & Graphs

Percent alcohol by volume through the centuries.

Potent Potables

Percent alcohol by volume through the centuries.

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Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Chinese poet Li Bai seated.

Photograph of British writer Roald Dahl.

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Photograph of American novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler.

Image of American lawyer and autobiographer Richard Henry Dana Jr.

Dorothy Parker working at her typewriter.

An old man is twice a child, and so is a drunken man.

—Plato, c. 360 BC

Portrait of English poet John Keats.

Photograph of American novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler.

John Keats & Raymond Chandler

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