Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: The Tyranny of Nature over the Greek Gods: Variations of Physical Interpretation
I: The Rediscovery of Greece and Elemental Interpretations of Greek Religion: Peter Wilhelm Forchhammer (1801-1894)
II: Zeus Kronion and the Greek Gods between Natur and Cultur: F.G. Welcker's Griechische Götterlehre (1857-1863)
III: Polytheism and Naturreligion: Ludwig Preller's Account of Greek Religion (1809-1861)
IV: Elemental Interpetations of the Greek Gods and Indo-European Comparative Mythology
A: The Greek Gods in the Light of the Veda: Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900)
B: Comparing Greek and Roman Gods: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1845-1923)
2: Stammesgötter and Universal Gods: The Historical-Critical Approach
I: The Dorian Apollo of Karl Otfried Müller (1797-1840)
II: Jahresgötter and Universal Gods: Heinrich Dietrich Müller (1819-1893)
III: Uniting the Aryan with the Semitic: Ernst Curtius (1814-1896)
3: Ancient Polytheisms and Modern Antagonisms: Hermann Usener's Theory of Sondergötter
4: British Responses
I: The Anthropological Background
II: Bridging Anthropology with the Study of Greek Religion: Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
III: The Greek Gods between German Alterthumswissenschaft and British Anthropology: Lewis Richard Farnell (1856-1934)
IV: Anthropology, Sociology and the Return of Elemental Interpretation: Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928)
Conclusion
Appendix: Apollo in Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century Scholarship
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Michael Konaris is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre de Recherches Historiques, EHESS.

Reviews

With the increasing understanding of the 19th century as a formative period in shaping classics as understood today, Konaris' monograph ... arrives opportunely.
*Alain Gough-Olaya, Journal of Hellenic Studies*

This entertaining book charts how leading scholars explained the Greek gods during a period when classical scholarship was burgeoning, the differences and conflicts between them (often arising from unacknowledged emotional conditioning), and how the arguments developed under the impact of new discoveries and disciplines ... it is a real achievement to have drawn all the threads together and yet made the result so readable.
*Colin McDonald, Classics for All*

Thanks to Konaris, students of ancient Greek religion now have a first map of the modern development of their discipline, while intellectual historians of the period will have a better handle of the uses to which ancient Greece and the Greek gods were put ... [this book] will sharpen and deepen your understanding of the Greek gods and Greek religion. It can be warmly recommended.
*Simon Trépanier, Bryn Mawr Classical Review*

This is a meaty, erudite ... account of several pioneering figures in the modern study of Greek mythology and religion. Konaris' monograph, which does heavy lifting in restoring to visibility some of the "less known scholars who played an important, if unacknowledged, role in the history of the discipline", will certainly be consulted in years to come; there is a wealth of knowledge here.
*Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Classical Journal Online*