A Companion to Greek Religion - Paperback

by Daniel Ogden (Editor)

This major addition to Blackwell's Companions to the Ancient World series covers all aspects of religion in the ancient Greek world from the archaic, through the classical and into the Hellenistic period.

• Written by a panel of international experts
• Focuses on religious life as it was experienced by Greek men and women at different times and in different places
• Features major sections on local religious systems, sacred spaces and ritual, and the divine

Back Jacket

A Companion to Greek Religion covers all aspects of religion in the ancient Greek world from the archaic, through the classical, and into the hellenistic period. Each of the volume's 27 essays is written by an international expert and provides a survey of a particular area that reflects contemporary scholarship. All the contributions place an emphasis on religious life as it was experienced by Greek men and women at different times and in different places. Myth is considered alongside religion throughout.

The Companion opens with a review of the Near Eastern background to Greek religion. There follow major sections on the divine powers, communication with the divine, sacred space and time, local religious systems, social organisation and the family in religion, and mystery cults and magic. Further chapters consider the interaction between religion and art, literature, and philosophy. A closing chapter looks at the treatment of Greek religious themes in the cinema.

Author Biography

Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter. He is author of Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (2002), Greek and Roman Necromancy (2001), and Greek Bastardy (1996), and editor of The Hellenistic World: New Perspectives (2002).