Contents
List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Using This Book
Abbreviations
1. What is Greek Religion?
Essay 1.1: Twelve Gods, and Other Ways to Limit a Pantheon
Essay 1.2: Homer’s Hera and the Hera(s) of Cult
Essay 1.3: Reciprocity in Greek Religion
2. Implicit Theology and the (Ir)rational
Essay 2.1: Epiphanies of Athena
Essay 2.2: What Do The Gods Know?
Essay 2.3: Myth, Ritual and Adonis
3. Orthopraxy, Identity, and Society
Essay 3.1: The Inclusiveness of the Panathenaic Festival
Essay 3.2: Dancing for the Gods
Essay 3.3: The Kyrene Cathartic Law
4. Ritual, Festival and Sacrifice
Essay 4.1: Sacrificing to Zeus Polieus on Kos
Essay 4.2: Theseus and the Athenian Calendar
Essay 4.3: Ritual Form and the Greek Evidence
5. Eschatology, Mysteries and Hero Cults
Essay 5.1 How Mystical Were the Eleusinian Mysteries?
Essay 5.2 Texts to Accompany the Dead
Essay 5.3 Three Heroic Founders
6. Memory, Continuity and Change
Essay 6.1 Memory and the Molpoi
Essay 6.2 Herakles as Pan-Mediterranean Deity
Essay 6.3 The Origins of Sarapis
Glossary
The Cognitive Science of Religion: A Bibliographical Essay
Index
Jennifer Larson is Professor of Classics at Kent State University. Her research interests include Greek poetry, mythology and religion. She is the author of Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (2001) and Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide (2007).
"Understanding Greek Religion: A Cognitive Approach is the best possible introduction to ancient Greek religion. There is more to the Greek religion than poetic myths and strange rituals. Jennifer Larson starts from the crucial idea that the ancient Greeks were like us, in that they shared the same mental processes and lived in the same world. She shows how this means that there is a lot more that can be said about the role of religion in their lives than simple studies of the ancient texts can reveal. Anyone at all interested in ancient Greek religion should read this book."- Professor Hugh Bowden, King's College London"Providing a comprehensive introduction to ancient Greek religion, Larson (classics, Kent State Univ.) examines the customary topics—myths, rituals, deities, mystery and hero cults, divination, festivals, games, processions, pollution, sacrifice, and so on—from a thoroughly new perspective: cognitive science ... Larson shows how the dynamics of religious thought and behavior involve agency, dual processing (distinguishing intuitive and reflective processes), and counterintuitive concepts (making concepts memorable) and how mental tools enable humans to construct representations as the basis of religion. The glossary and bibliographical essay will guide students as they explore this new approach to Greek religion. This volume is a model for the study of the ancient world."- L. J. Alderink, Concordia College
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