In 1815, F. W. J. Schelling presented a lecture titled "On the Deities of Samothrace" to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The lecture offered a startlingly original reading of the ancient Greek mystery religion on the island of Samothrace. It would be the last book Schelling himself published, and it is the key to his influential Philosophy of Mythology.
Now, for the first time in English, this critical edition contains the entirety of Schelling's original text, including the lecture itself, Schelling's afterword, and all his extensive philosophical and philological endnotes. It also offers copious explanatory notes, photographs and maps of the site, and three interpretive essays by the editors and translators elucidating Schelling's text for contemporary readers.
On the Deities of Samothrace is one of Schelling's most original and exciting works. It is a signature text in Schelling's thought and in the philosophy of religion generally.