Table of Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgments Abbreviations Map Introduction Setting the stage: the Archaic period Book structure Chapter 1: Early Heroes and Hero Cult Chapter 2: Heroic Sites in Sparta: The Archaeological Evidence Chapter 3: The Hero Shrines: Votives, Architectural Evidence, Topography Chapter 4: Heroes and Immortality Chapter 5: Honouring the Dead Chapter 6: Burials and Hero Cult: Three Case Studies Conclusion Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

The first in-depth study of the local religious hero-cults of archaic and classical Sparta.

About the Author

Nicolette A. Pavlides is Lecturer in Greek Art and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research focuses on Spartan religious practices, in particular hero cults, as well as the role of sanctuaries in the relationship between Sparta and the perioikic communities of Laconia and Messenia.

Reviews

Pavlides skilfully combines archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence to provide a detailed presentation of the role which hero cult – ranging from anonymous heroes to Helen, Menelaus and the Dioscuri – played in the lives of Spartan men, women and children
*Philip John Victor Davies, Assistant Professor in Ancient Greek History, University of Nottingham, UK*