Preface to the English Edition Introduction 1. A Survey of Scholarship 2. The Sources 3. The Scope of the Study I Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age 1. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age 2. Indo-European 3. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion 3.1 A Historical Survey 3.2 The State of the Sources 3.3 The Cult Places Caves Peak Sanctuaries Tree Sanctuaries House Sanctuaries Temples Graves 3.4 Rituals and Symbols 3.5 The Minoan Deities 3.6 The Mycenaean Gods and Linear B 4. The 'Dark Age' and the Problem of Continuity II Ritual and Sanctuary 1. 'Working Sacred Things': Animal Sacrifice 1.1 Description and Interpretation 1.2 Blood Rituals 1.3 Fire Rituals 1.4 Animal and God 2. Gift Offerings and Libation 2.1 First Fruit Offerings 2.2 Votive Offerings 2.3 Libation 3. Prayer 4. Purification 4.1 Function and Methods 4.2 The Sacred and the Pure 4.3 Death, Illness, and Madness 4.4 Purification by Blood 4.5 Pharmakos 5. The Sanctuary 5.1 Temenos 5.2 Altar 5.3 Temple and Cult Image 5.4 Anathemata 6. Priests 7. The Festival 7.1 Pompe 7.2 Agermos 7.3 Dancing and Hymns 7.4 Masks, Phalloi, Aischrologia 7.5 Agon 7.6 The Banquet of the Gods 7.7 Sacred Marriage 8. Ecstasy and Divination 8.1 Enthousiasmos 8.2 The Art of the Seer 8.3 Oracles III The Gods 1. The Spell of Homer 2. Individual Gods 2.1 Zeus 2.2 Hera 2.3 Poseidon 2.4 Athena 2.5 Apollo 2.6 Artemis 2.7 Aphrodite 2.8 Hermes 2.9 Demeter 2.10 Dionysos 2.11 Hephaistos 2.12 Ares 3. The Remainder of the Pantheon 3.1 Lesser Gods 3.2 Societies of Gods 3.3 Nature Deities 3.4 Foreign Gods 3.5 Daimon 4. The Special Character of Greek Anthropomorphism IV The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods 1. Burial and the Cult of the Dead 2. Afterlife Mythology 3. Olympian and Chthonic 4. The Heroes 5. Figures who cross the Chthonic-Olympian Boundary 5.1 Heracles 5.2 The Dioskouroi 5.3 Asklepios V Polis and Polytheism 1. Thought Patterns in Greek Polytheism General Considerations The Family of the Gods Pairs of Gods Old and Young Dionysos 2. The Rhythm of the Festivals 2.1 Festival Calendars 2.2 Year Ending and New Year 2.3 Karneia 2.4 Anthesteria 2.5 Thesmophoria 3. Social Functions of Cult 3.1 Gods between Amorality and Law 3.2 The Oath 3.3 The Creation of Solidarity in the Playing and the Interplay of Roles 3.4 Initiation 3.5 Crisis Management 4. Piety in the Mirror of Greek Language 4.1 Sacred' 4.2 Theos 4.3 Eusebeia VI Mysteries and Asceticism 1. Mystery Sanctuaries 1.1 General Considerations 1.2 Clan and Family Mysteries 1.3 The Kabeiroi and Samothrace 1.4 Eleusis 2. Bacchica and Orphica 2.1 Bacchic Mysteries 2.2 Bacchic Hopes for an Afterlife 2.3 Orpheus and Pythagoras 3. Bios VII Philosophical Religion 1. The New Foundation: Being and the Divine 2. The Crisis: Sophists and Atheists 3. The Deliverance: Cosmic Religion and Metaphysics 3.1 Pre-Socratic Outlines 3.2 Plato: The Good and the Soul 3.3 Plato: Cosmos and Visible Gods 3.4 Aristotle and Xenocrates: Spirit, God, and Demons 4. Philosophical Religion and Polis Religion: Plato's Laws Notes Bibliography Index of Greek Words Index
Walter Burkert was Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Zurich.
This book has established itself as a masterpiece, packed with
learning but also rich in ideas and connections of every sort. Its
appearance in a good English translation is an event not only for
Hellenists but for all those interested in the study of religion…
Nobody else could have produced an account of the subject of
comparable range and power. This will be the best history of Greek
religion for this generation.
*New York Review of Books*
Greek Religion…already has the standing of a classic, and the
publication of an English version, which incorporates new material
and is in effect a second edition, demands a toast… Anyone who
pretends to survey Greek religion must be phenomenally learned.
Burkert is. His book is a marvel of professional scholarship…
Anyone with an interest in the ancient world can follow the book
with pleasure and advantage. No one whose interest has been caught
by the Parthenon or by Homer’s stories should miss it.
*London Review of Books*
In this new book by Walter Burkert, professor of Greek at the
University of Zurich and possibly the most eminent living student
of ancient Greek religion, we are given the opportunity to enter
into this strange world [of ancient Greece]… Mr. Burkert has told
his fascinating story not only with immense learning but in a way
that captures the interest and sympathy of the reader.
*New York Times Book Review*
The subject of Greek religion has recently received a masterly and
elegant treatment in Walter Burkert’s Greek Religion…beautifully
translated by John Raffan. Like the Decalogue in the old saw, it
arouses feelings of reverence not unmixed with awe at the author’s
grasp of his material and the acuity with which he uses the
insights of psychology and sociology to show how the forms of Greek
religion were able to satisfy many of the deepest needs of men… One
will not often read a book that illuminates so profoundly what it
was like to live in ancient Greece.
*History Today*
The German edition of this book was published in 1977, and the
author has added references to important new publications since
that date. The introduction has a survey of previous scholarship, a
discussion of the sources, and an explanation of the scope of the
volume. What this book seeks to do is to indicate the manifold
variety of the evidence and the problems of its interpretation,
always with an awareness of the provisional nature of the
undertaking. This new paperback edition makes an important work
available at an economic price.
*Manuscripta*
The many fine qualities of this book’s original German version
(Griechische Religion der archaischen and klassichen Epoche, 1977)
have been noted in a veritable forest of reviews… The present
English translation, with updated references and an inexpensive
paperback edition, offers the prospect of use by American teachers
and/or students… It is comprehensive in subject, rich in evidence
of many types…and current… It is a peculiar excellence of this book
that its usefulness to scholars does not make it less appropriate
for students. Its length, in fact, is not at all excessive for a
college text, and its many subdivisions make it easy to
excerpt.
*New England Classical Newsletter*
This book has established itself as a masterpiece, packed with
learning but also rich in ideas and connections of every sort. Its
appearance in a good English translation is an event not only for
Hellenists but for all those interested in the study of religion...
Nobody else could have produced an account of the subject of
comparable range and power. This will be the best history of Greek
religion for this generation. * New York Review of Books *
Greek Religion...already has the standing of a classic, and
the publication of an English version, which incorporates new
material and is in effect a second edition, demands a toast...
Anyone who pretends to survey Greek religion must be phenomenally
learned. Burkert is. His book is a marvel of professional
scholarship... Anyone with an interest in the ancient world can
follow the book with pleasure and advantage. No one whose interest
has been caught by the Parthenon or by Homer's stories should miss
it. -- Jonathan Barnes * London Review of Books *
In this new book by Walter Burkert, professor of Greek at the
University of Zurich and possibly the most eminent living student
of ancient Greek religion, we are given the opportunity to enter
into this strange world [of ancient Greece]... Mr. Burkert has told
his fascinating story not only with immense learning but in a way
that captures the interest and sympathy of the reader. -- John
Macquarrie * New York Times Book Review *
The subject of Greek religion has recently received a masterly and
elegant treatment in Walter Burkert's Greek
Religion...beautifully translated by John Raffan. Like the
Decalogue in the old saw, it arouses feelings of reverence not
unmixed with awe at the author's grasp of his material and the
acuity with which he uses the insights of psychology and sociology
to show how the forms of Greek religion were able to satisfy many
of the deepest needs of men... One will not often read a book that
illuminates so profoundly what it was like to live in ancient
Greece. -- Richard Stoneman * History Today *
The German edition of this book was published in 1977, and the
author has added references to important new publications since
that date. The introduction has a survey of previous scholarship, a
discussion of the sources, and an explanation of the scope of the
volume. What this book seeks to do is to indicate the manifold
variety of the evidence and the problems of its interpretation,
always with an awareness of the provisional nature of the
undertaking. This new paperback edition makes an important work
available at an economic price. * Manuscripta *
The many fine qualities of this book's original German version
(Griechische Religion der archaischen and klassichen Epoche,
1977) have been noted in a veritable forest of reviews... The
present English translation, with updated references and an
inexpensive paperback edition, offers the prospect of use by
American teachers and/or students... It is comprehensive in
subject, rich in evidence of many types...and current... It is a
peculiar excellence of this book that its usefulness to scholars
does not make it less appropriate for students. Its length, in
fact, is not at all excessive for a college text, and its many
subdivisions make it easy to excerpt. -- Robert M. Simms * New
England Classical Newsletter *
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