The deepest spirit of Norman Douglas’s pursuit of pleasure can be interpreted as a form of Dionysian intoxication. In this context, wine becomes a fundamental ingredient of aphrodisiac intoxication, capable of freeing the deep eros that animated the writer. This version of eros drew on both Orphic cultures and Epicureism, as part of the rediscovery of pre-Christian antiquity. By turning to religions that set a low value on rationality, Douglas believed he might find a more liberated lifestyle, an ambition that at first was dreamed of and then in many ways realized.