This contribution is about Nietzsche’s concern for the concept and method of Classical Philology and the renewal that he proposed throughout his academic career as a philologist and philosopher. After some general considerations about the origin of the concept and method of philology and its reinvention in the «sciences of antiquity» from F. A. Wolf onwards, we analyze the way in which Nietzsche addressed the crisis of Classical Philology in his time. His use of the mystery religions and, in particular, of Dionysus as a symbol of a living and vital antiquity exemplifies Nietzsche’s idea of the work of the classical philologist, whose role instead of focusing on explaining the past should be a kind of cultural critic of the present. This ...