Religion in the Ancient Greek City

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Dec 17, 1992 - History - 278 pages
This book is a translation into English of La religion grecque by Louise Bruit Zaidman and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, described by Dr Simon Price as 'an excellent book, by far the best introduction to the subject in any language'. It is the purpose of the book to consider how religious beliefs and cultic rituals were given expression in the world of the Greek citizen - the functions performed by the religious personnel, and the place that religion occupied in individual, social and political life. The chapters cover first ritual and then myth, rooting the account in the practices of the classical city while also taking seriously the world of the imagination. For this edition the bibliography has been substantially revised to meet the needs of a mainly student, English-speaking readership. The book is enriched throughout by illustrations, and by quotations from original sources.
 

Contents

The necessity of cultural estrangement
3
Some fundamental notions
8
Sources of evidence
16
Rituals
27
Religious personnel
46
Places of cult
55
Rites of passage
63
Settings of religious life
80
The Panhellenic cults
112
Myths and mythology
143
A polytheistic religion
176
Forms of imaginative projection
215
Concluding reflections
231
The classical Greek temple
235
The monuments of the Athenian Akropolis
242
Bibliography
247

Religion and political life
92
The festival system the Athenian case
102

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