Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first attempt that has ever been made to give a comprehensive account of the religious life of ancient Athens. The city''s many festivals are discussed in detail, with attention to recent anthropological theory; so too, for instance, are the cults of households and of smaller groups, the role of religious practice and argumentation in public life, the authority of priests, the activities of religious professionals such as seers and priestesses, magic, the place of theatrical representations of the gods within public attitudes to the divine. A long final section considers the sphere of activity of the various gods, and takes Athens as a uniquely detailed test case for the structuralist approach to polytheism. The work is a synchronic, thematically organized complement (though designed to be read independently) to the same author''s Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996).
Trade Review...[this book] points the way to future developments in the study of both Athenian and Greek religion...an important contribution which certainly deserves its 2005 Criticos Award. * Julia L. Shear, Journal of Hellenic Studies *
...one of the best books I have read on ancient religion and one of the most useful. * James Davidson, London Review of Books *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; I ; 1. Ancestral Gods, Ancestral Tombs: The Household and Beyond ; 2. 'Those with whom I sacrifice' ; 3. Places of Cult: Athens and the Demes ; 4. International Religion ; 5. Who prays for Athens? Religion in Civic Life ; 6. 'Those who make a profession out of rites': Unlicensed Religion, and Magic ; 7. Religion in the Theatre ; II ; 8. Festivals and their Celebrants ; 9. Things Done at Festivals ; 10. The Festival Year ; 11. Parthenoi in Ritual ; 12. The Panathenaea ; 13. Women's Festivals: Thesmophoria and Adonia ; 14. The Anthesteria and other Dionysiac Rites ; 15. Eleusinian Festivals ; 16. Festivals, Rituals, Myths: Reprise ; 17. Gods at Work I: Protecting the City ; 18. Gods at Work II: The Growth of Plants and Men ; Epilogue
