HS3330: Gods and the Polis: Athenian Festivals

School Ancient History
Department Code SHARE
Module Code HS3330
External Subject Code V110
Number of Credits 10
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader null null null
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

The religious festivals and rituals of each classical city-state reflected the general Greek religious system of practices and beliefs, while helping to define and reinforce the social and political identities of each state and of smaller social groups within it. The module concentrates on the analysis of festivals, cults and beliefs of Athens, one of the most powerful and influential states, and the one for which there is the most evidence, literary, documentary and archaeological. METHODS OF TEACHING: 10 lectures and at least 2 seminars. METHODS OF ASSESSMENT: For Study Abroad and Erasmus students, coursework (100%). REQUISITES: Pre-requisite modules: HS2102 or HS3101.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

On successful completion of the module, the student will demonstrate:

·      A knowledge of the basic sites and ritual practices of Greek religions, and of the details of many of the festivals and rituals of Classical Athens and the functions they performed for their communities.

·      An understanding of the main differences between polytheistic and monotheistic religious systems, and of how a complex and changing polytheistic system can try to make sense of the world for its users.

·      An awareness of the main types of evidence - literary, archaeological, documentary and iconographical - and how they combined to produce an understanding of the festivals.

·      An ability to discuss these issues in written work with coherent and logical arguments, clearly and correctly expressed.

How the module will be delivered

This module will be taught by a series of lectures and supporting seminars

Skills that will be practised and developed

On successful completion of the module, the student will demonstrate:

·      A knowledge of the basic sites and ritual practices of Greek religions, and of the details of many of the festivals and rituals of Classical Athens and the functions they performed for their communities.

·      An understanding of the main differences between polytheistic and monotheistic religious systems, and of how a complex and changing polytheistic system can try to make sense of the world for its users.

·      An awareness of the main types of evidence - literary, archaeological, documentary and iconographical - and how they combined to produce an understanding of the festivals.

·      An ability to discuss these issues in written work with coherent and logical arguments, clearly and correctly expressed.

How the module will be assessed

This module will be assessed by a single coursework exercise

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 100 Gods & The Polis: Athenian Festivals N/A

Syllabus content

The system of animal sacrifice, the myth of Prometheus, and the difference between gods, men and beasts. Zeus and his festivals at Athens. Athena, the Panathenaia, and the protection and glorification of the city. Artemis, Apollo, initiation cults and their transformations. Demeter, agricultural and female fertility and the stability of marriage: the Thesmophoria, Haloa and the Adonia. Demeter, Panhellenism and the after-life: the Eleusinian mysteries. The varieties of Dionysos cults: social cohesion, women's ecstatic cults and mysteries. The sophists’ criticism of religous beliefs and practices, and popular responses to them

Essential Reading and Resource List

BIBLIOGRAPHY

There are some sourcebooks on Greek Religion (listed below), but we also ask you to purchase our own sourcebook, which focuses on Athenian religion.

Remember that various books not available in Cardiff may be consulted online via Google books and similar web-based resources.

If you cannot get hold of books or articles, come and see the module tutor who will be able to help.

Sourcebooks

Kearns, E. (2010), Ancient Greek Religion: A Sourcebook, Chichester [BL783.A6].

Kraemer, R.S. (2004), Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook, Oxford [BL458.W6].

Warrior, V.M. (2009), Greek Religion: A Sourcebook, Newburyport, Mass [BL783.W2].

General works on Greek religion

The best general books are:

Burkert, W. (1977, English translation 1985), Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, Oxford. [BL 782 B8].

Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P. (English translation 1992), Religion in the Ancient Greek City, Cambridge [BL 785 Z2].

Easterling, P.A. and Muir, J. (1985), Greek Religion and Society, Cambridge [DF121G7].

Mikalson, J.D. (2004), Ancient Greek Religion, Oxford [BL783.M4].

Ogden, D. (2007), A Companion to Greek Religion, Malden, MA [BL790.C6].

Price, S. (1999), Religions of the Ancient Greeks, Cambridge [DF121.G7].

Good short introductions:

Bremmer, J. (1994), Greek Religion, Oxford [BL 785 B].

Garland, R. (1994), Religion and the Greeks, London[BL782 G2].

Rather older general books and articles

Dodds, E.R. (1951), The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley [BF 91 G7D6].

Nilsson, M.P, (1949), History of Greek Religion, Oxford [BL 781 N4].

Nilsson, M.P. (1940), Greek Popular Religion, New York [BL 781 N4].

Examples of French 'structural' analyses

Gordon, R. (ed.) (1981), Myth, Religion and Society: Structuralist Essays, Cambridge [essays by Vernant, Vidal-Naquet, Detienne] [BL 790 M9].

Vernant, J.P, (1974), Myth and Society in Ancient Greece, New York [DF 78 V3].

Vernant, J.P. (1983), Myth and Thought among the Greeks, London [BL 781 V3].

Vernant, J.P. (1991) Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays, Princeton [BL782.V3].

Other general treatments and collections of articles

Buxton, R. (ed.) (2000), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL782.O9].

Davies, J.K., ‘Religion and the State’, in Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed., Volume IV, 368–88 [D 57 C2].

Larson, J. (2007), Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide, London [BL783.L2].

Nock, A.D. (1972), Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, Oxford [BL 27 N6].

Versnel, H.S. (ed.), Faith, Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World, Leiden [BL 727 V3].

Versnel, H.S. (1994), Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion, Leiden [BL722.V3].

Two older handbooks packed with detailed information on gods, epithets and cults

Farnell, L.R. (1909), Cults of the Greek States 5 vols, Oxford [BL 781 F2].

Cook, A.B. (1908), Zeus, Cambridge [BL 820 J8 C6].

Introductions to the notion of polis-cult

Cole, S.G. (1995), ‘Civic Cult and Civic Identity’, in M.H. Hansen (ed.), Sources for the Ancient Greek City-State, Copenhagen, 292–325. [JC73.S6]

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1990), ‘What is Polis-Religion’, in Murray and Price eds.,The Greek City (1990), 295–332 [DF 82 G7] and in A.R. Buxton (ed.), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion [BL782.O9].

Athenian Festivals and Cults: General

Evans, N. (2010), Civic Rites: Democracy and Religion in Ancient Athens, Berkeley [JC75.D36.E9].

Garland, R. (1990), ‘Priests and Power in Classical Athens’, in M. Beard and J. North (eds.), Pagan Priests: Religion and Power in the Ancient World, London [BL635.P2].

Humphreys. S.C. (2004), The Strangeness of Gods: Historical Perspectives on the Interpretation of Athenian Religion, Oxford [BL783.H8].

Kearns, E. ‘Change and Continuity in Religious Structures after Cleisthenes', in: Essays presented to G.E.M. de Ste.Croix (1985) 189–207, JA/Po. 

Parke, H.W. (1977), Festivals of the Athenians, London [DF 123 P2]

Parker, R. (1996), Athenian Religion: A History, Oxford [BL 793 A8 P2].

Parker, R. (2005), Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford [BL793.A8.P2].

Shapiro, H.A. (1994), ‘Religion and Politics in Democratic Athens’, in W.D.E. Coulson et al. (eds.), The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy, Oxford, 123–130 [Folio DF275.A7].

Simon, E. (1983), Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary, Madison, Wisconsin [DF 123 S4].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (2011), Athenian Myths and Festivals, Oxford [in cataloguing].

Myths, Rituals, Sacrifice, Offerings, Etc.

Barrringer, J.M. (2008), Art, Myth and Ritual in Classical Greece, Cambridge [NB160.B2].

Bremmer, J.M. (ed.) (1987), Interpretations of Greek Mythology,London [BL 782 I6].

Bremer, J.M. (1996), ‘The Reciprocity of Giving and Thanksgiving’, in Gill, Postlethwaite and Seaford (eds.), Reciprocity in Ancient Greece, Oxford, 127-138 [DF78.R3].

Burkert, W. (1979), Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual, Berkeley [BL 782 B8].

Burkert, W. (1972, English translation 1983), Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Berkely [BL 788 B8].

Buxton, R. (1995), Imaginary Greece: The Contexts of Mythology, Cambridge [in cataloguing]

Detienne, M. and Vernant, J.-P. (1988), The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, Chicago [BL 795 S2 D3].

Dowden, K. (1992), The Uses of Greek Mythology, London [BL 782 D6].

Ekroth, G. (2002), The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Periods, Liege [BL795.S25.E5].

Gould, J. (2001), Myth, Ritual, Memory, and Exchange: Essays in Greek Literature and Culture, Oxford [PA3061.G6].

Graf, F. (1993), Greek Mythology: An Introduction, Baltimore [BL782.G7].

Hägg, R., Marinatos, N. and Nordquist, G.C. (1988), Early Greek Cult Practice: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens, 26–29 June, Stockholm[Fol.BL 782 E2].

Jameson, M.H., Jordan, D.R. and Kotansky, R.D. (1993), A lex sacra from Selinous, Durham, North Carolina [CN397.S44.J2].

Jameson, M.J. (1994), ‘Theoxenia’, in R. Hagg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphic Evidence, 35–57 [BL 782 I6].

Kearns, E. (1994), ‘Cakes in Greek Sacrificial Regulations’, in R. Hagg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphic Evidence, 65–70 [BL 782 I6].

Kirk, G.S. (1974), The Nature of Greek Myths, Hardmonsworth [BL 782 K4].

Parker, R. (1996), ‘Pleasing thighs: reciprocity in Greek religion’, in Gill, Postlethwaite and Seaford (eds.), Reciprocity in Ancient Greece, Oxford, 105–125 [DF78.R3].

Rouse, W.H.D. (1902), GreekVotive Offerings: An Essay in the History of GreekReligion, Cambridge [BL795.V6.R6].

Rudhardt, J. and Reverdin, O. (eds.) (1981), Le sacrifice dans l'antiquité, Fondation Hardt Entretiens Vol. 27, Geneva [PA 3003 F61].

Tyrrell, W.B. and Brown, F.S. (eds.) (1991), Athenian Myths and Institutions.

Vernant, J.-P., ‘Hesiod's Myth of Prometheus’, in Gordon, R. (ed.) (1981), Myth, Religion and Society: Structuralist Essays, Cambridge, chapters 3 and 4 [BL 790 M9].

Vidal-Naquet, P. ‘Land and Sacrifice in Homer’, in Gordon, R. (ed.) (1981), Myth, Religion and Society: Structuralist Essays, Cambridge, chapter 5 [BL 790 M9].

Priests and Priestesses

Blok, J. (2009), ‘Pericles’ Citizenship Law: A New Perspective’, Historia 58: 141–70 [available in ASSL also as separate offprint].

Blok, J. and Lambert, S. D. (2009), ‘The Appointment of Priests in Attic Gene’, ZPE 169: 95–121.

Cole, S.G. (2004), Landscapes, Gender and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience. Berkeley. [BL795.W6.C6].

Connelly, J. B. (2007), Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, Princeton [BL795.W65.C6] This book excited considerable public interest and controversy when it appeared, mostly traceable on-line. See e.g. the review by James Davidson, TLS 5 October 2007 and reactions to it on-line, and C. Keesling review in BMCR

Dignas, B. and Trampedach, K. (eds.) (2008), Practitioners of the Divine, Washington DC [BL790.P7][Contains several useful articles on Greek priesthood]

Horster, M. (2010), ‘Women in Athenian Religion’, in G. Reger, F.X. Ryan and T. Winters (eds.), Studies in Greek Epigraphy and History in Honor of Stephen V. Tracy,Bordeaux, 177–92 [CN350.S8]

Lambert, S. D. (2010). ‘A Polis and its Priests: Athenian Priesthoods Before and After Pericles’ Citizenship Law’, Historia 59: 143–75. [also available as offprint as DF 82. L2]

Lambert, S. D. (2011). ‘The Attic Gene and the Athenian Religious Reform of 21 BC’, in

J. H. Richardson and F. Santangelo (eds.), Priests and State in the Roman World, Stuttgart.

Lambert, S. D. (2011). ‘The Social Construction of Priests and Priestesses in Athenian Honorific Decrees from the Fourth Century to the Augustan Period’, in M. Horster and A. Klöckner (eds.), Civic Priests. Cult Personnel in Athens from the Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity (Berlin, 2011 forthcoming) – proof copy available on Blackboard or in hard copy from Dr Totelin or Dr Lambert

Parker, R. – index s.v. priests in Parker, R. (1996), Athenian Religion: A History, Oxford [BL 793 A8 P2].

Religion, Morality, and Literature

Arafat, K. (1996), Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers, Cambridge [DF27.P383.A7].

Bowie, A. (1993), Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy, Cambridge [PA 3879 B6].

Dodds, E.R. (1973), The Ancient Concept of Progress,Oxford, chapters 4, 9, and10 [PA 3061 E5].

Dover, K.J. (1974), Greek Popular Morality, Oxford [PA 3057 M6 D6].

Foley, H. (1985), Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides, Ithaca, New York [PA 3978 F6].

Lada-Richards, I. (1998), Initiating Dionysus: ritual and theatre in Aristophanes’ Frogs, Oxford [PA3879.L2].

Lloyd-Jones, H. (1971), The Justice of Zeus, Berkely [PA 3074 E5].

Mikalson, J.D. (1983), Athenian Popular Religion, Chapel Hill [BL 793 A8M4.

Mikalson, J.D. (1991), Honour thy Gods: Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy [PA3136.M4].

Parker, R. (1983), Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL 788 P2].

Parker, R. (1997), ‘Gods Cruel and Kind: Tragic and Civic Theology’, in C. Pelling (ed.), Greek Tragedy and the Historian, Oxford, 143–160 [PA 3131 G7].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1997), ‘Tragedy and Religion: Constructs and Readings’, in C. Pelling (ed.), Greek Tragedy and the Historian, Oxford 161–186 [PA 3131 G7].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (2003), Tragedy and Athenian Religion, Lanham [PA3136.S6].

Yunis, H. (1988), A New Creed: Fundamental Religious Beliefs in the Athenian Polis and Euridean Drama, Gottingen [BL 783 A8 Y8].

Burial, Pollution, After-Life, and Souls

Boardman, J. and Kurtz, D. (1964), Greek Burial Customs, Ithaca, New York [DF 101 K8].

Bremmer, J.M. (1983), The Early Greek Concept of the Soul, Princeton [BL 795 S62 B7].

Morris, I. (1992), Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge [DE 61 B8 M6].

Parker, R. (1983), Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Greek Religion,Oxford, Ch. 2. [BL 788 P2].

Richardson, N.J. in Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P. (English translation 1992), Religion in the Ancient Greek City, Cambridge [BL 785 Z2].

Stears, K. (1998), ‘Death becomes her: Gender and Athenian death ritual’, in S. Blundell and Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in ancient Greece, London, 113–127 [BL795.W6.S2].

Vermeule, E. (1979), Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, Berkeley [NX 650 D3 V3].

Sanctuaries, Sites and Images

Alcock, S. and Osborne, R. (1994), Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece, Oxford [BL 795 S47 P5].

Berard, C. et al. (1989), A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece, Princeton [DF 78 C4].

Camp, J.M. (1992, updated edition), The Athenian Agora: Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens, London [DF 287 A23 C2].

Coulson, W.D.E. et al eds. (1994), The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy, Oxford [Folio DF275.A7].

Emerson, M. (2007), Greek Sanctuaries: An Introduction, London [NA275.E6].

Hägg, R. (ed.) (1993), The Iconography of Greek Cult in the Archaic and Classical Periods, Athens and Liege [N5633 I2].

Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. (eds.) (1993), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches, London[BL 795 S47 G7].

Schachter, A. (ed.) (1992), Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique. Tome 37, Le Sanctuaire grec, Geneva [PA3003.F6].

Tomlinson, R. (1976), Greek Sanctuaries, London [NA 278 S2 T6].

Travlos, J. (1971), Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens, London [Fol.NA 280 T7].

Wycherley, R. (1978), The Stones of Athens, Princeton [Architecture 720.938 W].

Heroes, Heroines, and Athenian autochthony myth

Blok, J.(2009), ‘Gentrifying Genealogy: On the Genesis of the AthenianAutochthony Myth’, in C. Walde, U. Dill (eds.), Antike Mythen:Medien, Transformationen und Konstruktionen. Festschrift Fritz Graf,Berlin, 251–75. [Copies available from Dr Lambert and Dr Totelin].

Clinton, K. (1994), ‘The Epidauria and Arrival of Asclepius at Athens’, in R. Hagg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphic Evidence, Stocholm, 17–34 [BL 782 I6].

Connolly, A. (1998), ‘Was Sophocles heroised as Dexion?’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 118, 1–21.

Connor, W.R. ‘Theseus and his City’, in P. Hellstrom and B. Alroth (eds.), Religion and Power in the Ancient Greek World, Uppsala,115–120 [BL 795 P57 U7].

Kearns, E. (1986), ‘The Nature of Heroines’, in S. Blundell and M. Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece, London, 96–110 [BL795.W6.S2].

Kearns, E. (1989), The Heroes of Attica, London [fol BL 778 K3].

Lambert, S.D. (2008), ‘Aglauros, the Euenoridai and the Autochthon of Atlantis’, ZPE 167: 22–26.

Larson, J. (1995),Greek Heroine Cults, Madison, Wisconsin [BL795.H47.L2].

Larson, J. (2001), GreekNymphs: Myth, Cult,Lore, Oxford [BL820.N95.L2].

Lyons, D. (1996), Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult, Princeton [BL795.H47.L9].

Mills, S. (1997), Theseus, Tragedy, and the Athenian Empire, Oxford [PA3136.M4]

Nock, A.D. (1972), ‘The Cult of Heroes’, in A.D. Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, Oxford [BL 27 N6].

Rosivach, V. (1987), ‘Autochthony and the Athenians’, Classical Quarterly 37 (1987), 294–306.

Walker, H.J. (1995), Theseus and Athens, New York [In cataloguing]

Local Cults and Private Cult Groups

Garland, R. (2001, 2nd edition), The Piraeus: From the Fifth to the First Century BC, Bristol, chapter 3 [DF 287 P4 G2].

Mikalson, J.D. (1977), ‘Religion in the Attic Demes’, American Journal of Philology 98, 424ff.

Osborne, R. (1985), Demos, chapter 8 [HN 10 A8 D7].

Parker, R. (1987), ‘Religion in the Athenian Demes’, in T. Linders and G. Nordquist (eds.), Gifts to the Gods, Uppsala [BL 760 V6 G4].

Whitehead, D. (1986), The Demes of Attica: 508/7–ca. 250 B.C.: A Political and Social Study, Princeton,chapter 7 [DF 82 W4].

Athena and The Panathenaia

Aleshire, S.B. and Lambert, S.D. (2003), ‘Making the Peplos for Athena: A New Edition of IG II2 1060 + 1036’, ZPE 142: 65–86.

Blundell, S. (1998), ‘Marriage and the Maiden: Narratives on the Parthenon’, in S. Blundell and Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece, London, 47–70 [BL795.W6.S2].

Castriota, D. (1994), Myth, Ethos, and Actuality: Official Art in Fifth-Century BC Athens, Madison, Wisconsin [N 5630 C2].

Connelly, J.B. (1996), ‘Parthenon and Parthenoi: a mythological interpretation of the Parthernon frieze’, American Journal of Archaeology 100, 53–80.

Connor, W.R. ‘Tribes, Festivals and Processions’, in R. Buxton (ed.) (2000), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL782.O9].

Deacy, S. and Villing, A.(eds.) (2001), Athena in the Classical World, Leiden [BL820.M6.A8]

Deacy, S. (2008), Athena, London [BL820.M6.D3].

Hooker, G.T.W. (1963), Parthenos and Parthenon. Greece and Rome Supplementary Volume, Oxford [DF287.P3.H6].

Kyle, D.G. (1987), Athletics in Ancient Athens, Leiden [DF 97 K9].

Lonsdale, S. (1993), Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion, Baltimore [BL788.L6].

Loraux, N. (1993), The Children of Athena, Princeton [HQ 1075 S6 L6].

Mansfield, J.M. (1985), The Robe of Athena and the Panathenaic Peplos, Ann Arbor [BL820.M6.M2].

Neils, J. (ed.) (1992), Goddess and Polis; The Panathenaic Festival in ancient Athens, Hanover, H.N. [Fol. DF123.N3].

Neils, J. (ed.) (1996), Worshipping Athena: Panathenaia and Parthenon, Madison, Wisconsin [DF 123 W6].

Neils, J. (2001), The Parthenon Frieze, Cambridge [NA2965.N3].

Osborne, R. (1994), ‘Democracy and Imperialism in the Panathenaic Procession: The Panathenaic in its Context’, in W.D.E. Coulson et al. (eds.), The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy, Oxford, 143–150 [Folio DF275.A7].

Roberston, M. and Franz, A. (1975), The Parthenon Frieze, London [fol. NB 91 A7 R6].

Initiations And Rites Of Passages – Boys And Girls, Apollo and Artemis

Bremmer, M. ‘Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece’, in Buxton, R. (ed.) (2000), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL782.O9].

Cole, S.G. (1998), ‘Domesticating Artemis’, in S. Blundell and M. Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece, London, 27–44 [BL795.W6.S2].

Dodd, D.B. and Faraone, C.A. (eds.) (2003), Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: new critical perspectives, London [BL 795 I55 I6].

Dowden, K. (1989), Death and the Maiden: Girls’ Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology, London[BL 785 D6].

Garland, R. (1990), The Greek Way of Life: From Conception to Old Age, London [In cataloguing].

Lambert, S.D. (1993), The Phratries of Attica, Ann Arbor [DF289.L2].

Lloyd-Jones, H. (1983), ‘Artemis and Iphigeneia’, Journal of Studies 103 (1983) 87ff.

Padilla M.C. (ed.) (1999), Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece, Lewisburg [L9 PA 3131 R4].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1990), Studies In Girls’ Transitions, SWLIBRARY.

Van Gennep, A. (1908, English Translation 1960), The Rites of Passage, Chicago [GN 473 G3].

Vidal-Naquet, P. in Gordon, R. (ed.) (1981), Myth, Religion and Society: Structuralist Essays, Cambridge [BL 790 M9] or in The Black Hunter, 85–105.

Vidal-Naquet, P. (1986), ‘The Black Hunter Revisited’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 212, 126–44.

Demeter Cults, Adonis, and Women's Cults Generally

Blok, J. and Mason, P. (eds) (1998), Sexual Asymmetry: Studies in Ancient Society, esp. articles by Blok, Versnel, and Bremmer [HQ 1134 S4].

Blundell, S. and Williamson, M. eds. (1998), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece, London [BL795.W6.S2].

Brumfield, A.C. (1981), The Attic Festivals of Demeter and their Relation to the Agricultural year, New York [BL820 C5 B7].

Clinton, K. (1996), ‘The Thesmophoria in Athens’, in R. Hagg (ed.), Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis, Stockholm [BL795.P57.I6].

Cole, S.G. ‘Demeter in the Ancient Greek City and countryside’, in Buxton, R. (ed.) (2000), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL782.O9].

Detienne, M. (1972, English Translation 1977), The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology, Hasscosk [BL 795 A7 D3].

Dillon, M. (2002), Girls and Women in ClassicalGreek Religion, London [BL795.W65.D4].

Foxhall, L. (1995), ‘Women's Ritual and Men’s Work in Ancient Athens’, in R. Hawley and B. Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, London, 97–110 [HQ1134.W6].

Gould, J. (1980), ‘Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 100, 38ff., and in Gould, J. (2001), Myth, Ritual, Memory, and Exchange: Essays in Greek Literature and Culture, Oxford [PA3061.G6].

Just, R. (1980), Women in Athenian Law and Life, London [HQ1134J8].

Keuls, E.C. (1985), The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens, New York [HQ 1134 K3].

Kron, U. (1993), ‘Priesthoods, Dedications and Euergetism: What Part did Religion play in the Political and Social Status of Greek Women?’, in P. Hellstrom and B. Alroth (eds.) Religion and Power in the Ancient Greek World, Uppsala,115–120 [BL 795 P57 U7].

Lowe, N.J. (1998), ‘Thesmophoria and Haloa: Myth, Physics and Mysteries’, in S. Blundell and M. Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece, London, 149–173 [BL795.W6.S2].

Nixon, L. (1995), ‘The Cults of Demeter and Kore’, in R. Hawley and B. Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, London, 75–96 [HQ1134.W6].

Osborne, R. (1993), ‘Women and Sacrifice in Classical Greece’, Classical Quarterly 43,and in Buxton, R. (ed.) (2000), Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, Oxford [BL782.O9].

Tyrrell, W.B. (1984), Amazons: A study in Athenian mythmaking, Baltimore [BL 820 A6 T9]. 

Demeter and The Eleusinian Mysteries

Burkert, W. (1972, English translation 1983), Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Berkeley, chapter 5 on Eleusis [BL 788 B8].

Burkert, W. (1987), Ancient Mystery Cults, Cambridge, Mass. [BL 610 B8].

Clinton, K. (1974), Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Philaldelphia [Fol BL 795 E5 C5].

Clinton, K. (1993), ‘The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis’, in Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. (eds.) (1993), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches, London, 110–124[BL 795 S47 G7].

Clinton, K. Myth and Cult: the Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Stockhlom [Fol.  L795.E5.C5].

Clinton, K. (1994), ‘The Eleusinian Mysteries and Panhellenism in Democratic Athens’, in W.D.E. Coulson et al. eds., The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy, Oxford, 161–72, [Folio DF275.A7].

Foley, H.P. (ed.) (1994), The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Princeton [PA 4023 H83 H6].

Mylonas, G. (1961), Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton [DF 261 E4 M9].

Richardson, N.J. (1974), Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Oxford, esp. intr. pp.12–30 [PA 4023 H83 R4].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1997), ‘Reconstructing Social Change: Ideology and the Eleusinian Mysteries’, in Golden and Toohey (eds.), Inventing Ancient Culture: historicism, periodization and the ancient world, London, 132–64 [DE59.I6].

Dionysus : Civic Cults, Ecstatic Cults and Mysteries

Burkert, W. (1972, English translation 1984), Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Berkeley, chapter 4 on Anthesteria [BL 788 B8].

Carpenter, T.H. and Faraone, C.A. (eds.) (1993), Masks of Dionysus, Ithaca, New York [PA 3015 R5 D5 M2].

Cole, S.G. (1984), Theoi Megaloi: The Cult of the Great Gods at Samothrace, Leiden [BL 793S3 C3].

Detienne, M. (1988), Dionysos Slain, Baltimore [BL 820 B2 D3].

Hamilton, R. (1992), Choes and Anthesteria: Athenian Iconography and Ritual, Ann Arbor[DF 123 H2].

Henrichs, A. (1978), ‘Greek Maenadism from Olympias to Messalina’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 82, 121ff.

Kraemer, R. (1979), ‘Ecstasy and Possession: The Attraction of Women to the Cult of Dionysus’, Harvard Theological Review 72, 55ff.

Meyer, B. and Sanders, E. (eds) (1982), Jewish and Christian Self-Definition: Self Definition in the Greco-Roman World Vol. 3, London, articles by Burkert and Henrichs [B 505 J3].

Nilsson, M.P. (1957), Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, Lund [BL 820 B2 N4].

Osborne, R. (1997), ‘The Ecstasy and the Tragedy: Varieties of Religious Experience in Art, Drama and Society’, in C. Pelling (ed.), Greek Tragedy and the Historian (1997), Oxford, 187–212 [PA 3131 G7].

Seaford, R. (1994), Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-State, Oxford [PA 3052 S3].

Seaford, R. (2006), Dionysus, London [BL820.B2.S3].

Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1994), ‘Something to do with Athens: Tragedy and Ritual’, in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower (eds.), Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic accounts presented to David Lewis, Oxford [DF 277 R4].

Winkler, J. and Zeitlin, F. (eds.) (1990), Nothing to Do with Dionysos?Athenian Drama in its Social Context, Princeton [PA3136.N6].

Asclepius: healing and religion       

Aleshire, S.B. (1992), ‘The Economics of Dedication at the Athenian Asklepieion’, in T. Linders and B. Alroth (eds.), Economics of Cult in the Ancient Greek World: Proceedings of the Uppsala Symposium 1990, Uppsala, 85–92 [BL795.E25.E2].

Edelstein, E.J. and Edelstein, L. (1945, repinted 1998), Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Baltimore [BL820.A4.E3].

Gorrini, M.E. (2005), ‘The Hippocratic Impact on Healing Cults: The Archaeological Evidence in Attica’, in P.J. van der Eijk (ed.), Hippocrates in Context: Papers Read at the Xith International Hippocrates Colloquium, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2731 August 2002, Leiden, 135–156 [PA4016.28.H4].

King, H. (1999), ‘Comparative Perspectives on Medicine and Religion in the Ancient World’, in J.R. Hinnels and R. Porter (eds.), Religion, Health, and Suffering, London, 276–294 [BL65.M4.R3].

Lloyd, G.E.R. (2003), In the Grip of Disease: Studies in the Greek Imagination, Oxford, Chapter 3 [DF78.L5].

Wickkiser, B.L. (2008), Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece: Between Craft and Cult, Baltimore [R138.W4].

New Gods and Cults: Pythagoreans, Orphics, etc.

Betegh, G. (2004), The Derveni Papyrus: Cosmology, Theology, and Interpretation, Cambridge [BL783.B3].

Bowden, H. (2010), Mystery Cults in the Ancient World, London [BL795.M9.B6].

Garland, R. (1992), Introducing New Gods: The Politics of Athenian Religion, London [BL 793 A8.G2].

Graf, F. and Johnston, S.I. (eds.) (2007), Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic gold tablets, London [BL790.R4].

Guthrie, W.K.C. (1935), Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement, London [BL820.O7.G8].

Laks, A. and Most, G.W. (eds.) (1997), Studies on the Derveni Papyrus, Oxford [BL782.S8].

Intellectual Criticism and Reactions

Barnes, J. (1979), The Presocratic Philosophers. Vol.II, London, chapter 7 [B.188.B2].

Connor, W.R. (1991), ‘The Other 399: Religion and the Trial of Socrates’, in M.A. Flower and M. Toher (eds.), Georgica: Greek studies in honour of George Cawkwell, London, 49–56 [Folio DF77.G3].

Dodds, E.R. (1951), The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley, chapter 6 [BF 91 G7D6].

Dover, K.J. (1988), ‘The Freedom of the Intellectual in Greek Society’. In K.J. Dover (ed.), The Greeks and their Legacy, chapter 13 [PA 27 D6].

Guthrie, W.K.C. (1969), History of Greek Philosophy. Volume 3, pp. 226ff., 402ff., 473ff. [B171.G8].

Henrichs (1975) ‘Democritus and Prodicus on Religion’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 79, 93ff.

Kerferd, G.B. (1981), The Sophistic Movement, Cambridge [B 288 K3].

Lloyd, G.E.R. (1979), Magic Reason and Experience, Cambridge, chapter 1 [B 187 S2 L5].

Muir, J.V. in Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P. (English translation 1992), Religion in the Ancient Greek City, Cambridge, chapter 8 [BL 785 Z2].

Translations of the fragments of the Presocratic and Sophists

Early Greek Philosophy, translated by Jonathan Barnes (1987).

The Greek Sophists, translated by John Dillon and Tania Gergel (2003).

Divination and Oracles

Nilsson, M.P. (1951), Cults, Myths, Oracles and Politics in ancient Greece, Lund [BL 785 N4].

Parke, H.W. and Wormell, D. (1956), The Delphic Oracle, Oxford [DF 261 D 35 B2].

Parke, H.W. (1967), Greek Oracles, Hutchinson [DF 125 P2].

Parke, H.W. (1967), Oracles of Zeus, Oxford [DF 175 F2].        

Parker, R. (1985), ‘Greek States and Greek Oracles’, in CRUX: Essays presented to G.E.M. de Ste.Croix, 298ff., Per JA/Po.  

Powell, A. (1988), Athens and Sparta, chapter 9 [DF 214 P6].

Price, S. in Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P. (English translation 1992), Religion in the Ancient Greek City, Cambridge, chapter 6 [BL 785 Z2].

Whittaker, C.R. (1965), ‘The Delphic Oracle’, Harvard Theological Review 58, 21ff.

Ritual Curses And Magic

Faraone, C.A. and Obbink, D. (1991), Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, New York [BF 1591.M2].

Gager, J.G. (1992), Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, New York [BF1558.C8].

Graf, F. (1997), Magic in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass [BF1591.G7].


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