New Aspects of Religion in Ancient Athens: Honors, Authorities, Esthetics, and Society

by Jon Mikalson

Overview

Jon D. Mikalson offers for classical and Hellenistic Athens a study of the terminology and contexts of praises of religious actions and artefacts and an investigation of the various authorities in religious activities. The terms of approbation apply to priests, priestesses, and lay individuals in various capacities as well as to sacrifices, dedications, and sanctuaries. From these a new esthetic of Greek religion emerges as well as a new social aspect of public religious practices. The authorities include oracles, traditional customs, laws, and decrees, and their hierarchy and interaction are described. The authority of the Ekklesia, Boule, administrative and military officials, priests, priestesses, and others is also delineated, and a new view of polis “control” of religion is put forward.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004319189
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/18/2016
Series:	Religions in the Graeco-Roman World , #183
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	0.63(w) x 0.94(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jon D. Mikalson, Ph.D.(1970), Harvard University. Kenan Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia. His books include Athenian Popular Religion (1983), Honor Thy Gods: Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy (1992), Religion in Hellenistic Athens (1998), and Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Abbreviations x

Introduction 1

Part 1 Approbation

1 The Qualifiers of Athenian Religious Practices 19

2 The Good Priests and Priestesses 50

3 Who Sacrifices and to Whom? 56

4 Who Reports What? 84

5 Who Pays for What? 91

Part 2 Authority

Introduction to Part 2 109

6 Tα Πατρια 110

7 Nomoi and Psephismata 120

8 Oracles and Divination 154

9 The Four Authorities 165

Part 3 Approbation and Authority

10 The Rhetoric to Alexander 185

11 Authority of the Polis 189

12 Approbation 242

13 Social and Esthetic Dimensions of Religious Actions 249

Appendices

1 The Oracles of Demosthenes 43 and 21 267

2 Demosthenes, Prooemium 54 276

3 'Ιερα Καλα 279

4 'Οσιοτης 283

5 Curse Tablets from Cnidus and 'Οσιοτης 292

6 Some Non-Athenian Praises of Religious Actions 294

7 Athens and the Cult of Eleusinian Demeter 296

Glossary of Greek Terms 301

Glossary of Officials and Terms 303

Bibliography 307

Index of Inscriptions Cited 317

Index of Other Texts Cited 326

Index of Greek Phrases 334

General Index 335

Editorial Reviews

"Avec ce livre, la réflexion ouverte depuis plusieurs années sur la pertinence de la notion de polis religion s’enrichit de l’approche prudente et philologiquement impeccable d’un corpus souvent négligé. Ce n’est pas le moindre des mérites de l’ouvrage." - Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, Paris/Liège, Gnomon 93:6 2021.

From the Publisher