Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical / Edition 1

by Walter Burkert, John Raffan

Overview

"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."
— London Review of Books

"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

Cover illustration: detail from an Attic vase, 450 B.C., showing a victory sacrifice (The Mansell Collection).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631156246
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/08/1991
Series:	Ancient World
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	425,773
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. John Raffan is the author of Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, published by Wiley.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

A Survey of Scholarship.

The Sources.

The Scope of the Study.

Part I: Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age.

2. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

3. Indo-European.

4. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion.

5. The Dark Ages and the Problem of Continuity.

Part II: Ritual and Sanctuary.

6. ‘Working Sacred Things: Animal Sacrifice.

7. Gift Offerings and Libation.

8. Prayer.

9. Purification.

10. The Sanctuary.

11. Priests.

12. The Festival.

13. Ecstasy and Divination.

Part III: The Gods.

14. The Spell of Homer.

15. Individual Gods.

16. The Remainder of the Pantheon.

17. The Special Character of Greek Anthropomorphism.

Part IV: The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods.

18. Burial and the Cult of the Dead.

19. Afterlife Mythology.

20. Olympian and Chthonic.

21. The Heroes.

22. Figures Who Cross the Chthonic-Olympian Boundary.

Part V: Polis and Polytheism.

23. Thought Patterns in Greek Polytheism.

24. The Rhythm of the Festivals.

25. Social Functions of Cult.

26. Piety in the Mirror of Greek Language.

Part VI: Mysteries and Asceticism.

27. Mystery Sanctuaries.

28. Bacchica and Orphica.

29. Bios.

Part VII: Philosophical Religion.

30. The New Foundation: Being and the Divine.

31. The Crisis: Sophists and Atheists.

32. The Deliverance: Cosmic Religion and Metaphysics.

33. Philosophical Religion and Polis Religion: Plato's Laws.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index of Greek Words.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

Chapter titles suggest Burkert's scope and treatment of the multiple facets of Greek religion, focusing upon the period 800-300 B.C.: Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age; Ritual and Sanctuary; The Gods; The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods; Polis and Polytheism; Mysteries and Asceticism; Philosophical Religion. References to publications since the German edition of 1977 are included. Generally, this is a praiseworthy overview of a difficult subject. However, an unidiomatic English translation makes for added difficulties in coping with Burkert's relentless scholarshipreplete with dogmatic hypotheses and often unconvincing conclusions. Greater judicious clarity would have made this important work less frustrating for the scholar and more accessible to the student of religion. Robert J. Lenardon, Classics Dept., Siena Coll. & SUNY at Albany

Library Journal

"A powerful synthesis from the greatest living authority on the subject, but for all its depth and detail, it is never less than lucid and the text is constantly enlivened with vivid asides and illuminating analogies." The Times

"The leading continental scholar ... his Greek Religion... already has the standing of a classic." London Review of Books

"A masterpiece, packed with learning but also rich in ideas and connections of every sort ... 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

From the Publisher