Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (Ancient World) [Paperback]

Walter Burkert (Author), John Raffan (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Ancient World | Publication Date: January 16, 1991

This is the first major synthesis of Greek religion to appear for a generation. A clearly structured and readable survey for classical scholars and students, it will also be generally welcomed as the best modern account of any polytheistic religious system. The text builds up an impressive and coherent picture of the current state of knowledge about the religion of the ancient Greeks.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

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

Copyright 1985 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (January 16, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631156240
• ISBN-13: 978-0631156246
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic survey of religious practice in Ancient Greece, January 30, 2002

By 

Sean Francisco Smith "New York Jazz MythMaker" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greek Religion (Paperback)

While the market for Mythology is flooded by books describing Greek Myth (with many excellent versions), too many have been reduced to neo-pagan re-usage, forcing the myths onto a modern metaphor. All too often, books cut and paste the myths into a new age ideal that melts Taosism, Buddhism, American SHamanism into a nasty blend devoid of any of the specific flavorings of any of these rich traditions.

Burkett's book doesn't d othis. If you want to know how the Ancient Greeks PRACTICED religion, this is a great book, filled with fantastic detail. Burkett is neither a Frazer/Campbell Synthesist, nor a true Levi-Strauss Structuralist. Like the latter group, he delves into the details, discussing how the individual greek cities and cults practiced their religion.

By the time the book is complete, the reader has a crystal clear picture of the everyday spiritual life of an ancient greek citizen, from the archaic to the philosophical (even the the curses and phrases).

More than that, the book gives a clear definition of what a Polytheistic system of beliefs is like.

I definite part of any student of Greek History or General Mythology and Religion.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, April 27, 2000

By 

Charissa Gilreath - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greek Religion (Paperback)

Finally, a book that doesn't just go over the main Greek gods and goddesses, list a few of the festivals and some myths, and stop there. This book goes into great depth about what Greek religion was /really/ like, and the motivations, beliefs, and psychology behind it. Relying on archaeological evidence as well as other sources, this book gives an in depth look at ancient Greek religion, even confronting the issue of human sacrifice. Extensive notes in the back further flesh out this fantastic book, providing hundreds of other avenues and sources to explore. The author even provides an index of Greek words if you want to look a term up straight from the original Greek instead of wondering how it's been translated into English so you can look it up in the regular index. The writing might be slightly dense in some areas, but this isn't a problem as the subject is so interesting and so much information is presented. A truly scholarly book.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Resource., August 1, 2006

By 

Christopher W. Roe (The North Side of Chicago, Illinois.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Greek Religion (Paperback)

Walter Burkert's "Greek Religion" is an intense survey of Hellenistic religious beliefs from their earliest Minoan and Mycennean antecedents. This review will summarize the material contained within the study, extrapolate the central themes of the text, and finally shall offer an analysis of the text with regard to its presentation of data, use of archaeological and primary sources, and its intended audience.
The material is diverse within it's scope. Whereas other survey-type texts only include an overview of the basic Olympian Gods, and perhaps a marginal mentioning of some of the major festivals, Burkert's text provides the reader with an in-depth look at all of those issues as well as giving the reader the, "why", as best as he could surmise through his research. He is blunt about stating the lack of comprehensive written resources, and does not speculate too far beyond the scant information he does possess. To the researcher this is valuable, as massive leaps are not made from what does exist to what may possibly have been the case.
As previously mentioned, the first few chapters of the text offer a brief chronology of what was happening spiritually in the pre-Hellenistic Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. This provides the reader with an appropriate historical context within which to frame the discussion of later spiritual beliefs. The scope of the text covers a vast time period of that prehistory, from approximately 1500-1200 B.C., then continues on to describe the formation of a distinctly Greek religion developing from those antecedents at or about the ninth/eighth century. The chronological scope concludes at or about the time of the conquests of Alexander and the rise of religious philosophers who attempted to rationalize the world around them, usually without employing polytheistic spiritual beliefs.
The people whose belief systems are studied are all of those who fell within the geographic scope of this text, which includes all of those who spoke the Greek language and had Greek literature at their disposal. In what or who did those peoples believe? Burket is quick to tell us that there is a great deal of speculation, but scant evidence to actually confirm the full scope of Minoan and later Mycenaean belief systems. From what archaeological and scant written evidence exists in the forms of Linear A and Linear B, as well as referencing the work of his predecessors, Burket is able to reconstruct a basic set of deities and holy places. Minoan civilization seemed to heavily favor female goddesses to include but not limited to, the Snake Goddess, who was essentially a house goddess. Evidence of the existence of male deities is limited, at best. The "Minoan Tree and Pillar Cult," which was a set of sanctuaries at which worship was conducted were also important. The trees and pillars, although sacred sites, were not themselves worshipped. Also important, especially on Crete not only in Minoan and Mycenaean traditions, but with elements carried over into the later Hellenistic tradition was symbology related to the bull. Although there is no evidence that the bull was worshipped as a god, the sacred symbols and festivals celebrating the bull persist. Mycenaean Gods are discussed, and for the first time the reader is introduced, based upon archaeological evidence, (specifically Linear B tablets recovered from Knossos and Pylos on Crete,) among others, to the gods and goddesses that would become the familiar Olympian deities.
Section III of the text delves into a discussion of the Olympian and related gods and goddesses. It relies heavily on the work of Homer, Hesiod, and Xenophanes for the purpose of providing the reader with general genealogical information, then moves into archaeological and historical evidence which paints a broader picture of the gods and goddesses in several different contexts, specifically, how the deity evolved from different influences, an overview of how cult was paid, and how the individual regarded the deity. Interesting to note is the evidence Burket provides stating that most all of the Greek deities had much earlier influences, some more important than others. For example, he points out how earlier researchers, "sought to connect Athena with the Snake Goddess" from earlier Minoan civilization, then continues to show her with antecedents in Syrian culture, at Troy, and at other sites in and around the Mediterranean. Although this text is traditionally regarded as a survey by many critics, it covers each of the traditional Olympian gods and goddesses in significant detail, as well as some of the lesser deities and sprits, such as nature deities including the rivers, nymphs, Gaia and Helios. The final section discusses the availability if not importance of foreign gods in the polytheistic Pantheon, divine and/or semi-divine figures such as Heroes and the Dead, to whom cult was also paid by the Greeks.
How did the Greeks worship their Gods and Goddesses? This question is answered in great detail by Burkert, usually by referring to an in-depth examination of each individual deity. Many chapters of
the text, however, are devoted the discussion of specific festivals and what went on there. For example, the Anthesteria festival is discussed at length. Within the context of that
chapter the reader is offered the time of year when the festival happened, (springtime), the length of the festival, (three days), what the festival was for, and what manner of activity took place there. A detailed account, based upon what sparse information survives, is offered to the reader for several different festivals. Interesting to note is that several smaller festivals are discussed, setting this text apart from general survey texts.
The final section of this section of the text provides the reader with some of the reasons why the Greeks practiced their beliefs in the manner that they did. It is one of the more illuminating portions of the book, as it offers ideas such as initiation into manhood, crisis management in the polis, and the establishment and maintenance of social mores as motivating factors behind worship.
Section VII of the text, which chronologically comprises the end of the era discussed in the scope of the text, discusses philosophical religion, and the break that some major philosophers of the era had with polytheism. Many philosophers, such as Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Leukippos, and Democritus developed systems that offered rational explanations for nature. The interplay of earth, water, fire, and wind are offered by as explanations for the creation of the tangible world, and the events which took place in it; opinions which stand in stark opposition to the belief system established by the early Greeks who believed that all were the result of the deeds of some anthropomorphic deity. The text concludes by offering the opinions of Plato, Aristotle, Xenocrates as they debate atheism and polytheism.
This book is more than a general chronology of Greek Religion, which attempts only to find a well-defined "beginning" or an ending. Instead, its central themes focus on explaining, in great detail, everything that can be covered within the scope for which written or archaeological evidence exists in support. The main theme of the text states that it is interested in a "...focus on an ahistorical structuralism concerned with formal models and confined to presenting in their full complexity the immanent, reciprocal relationships within the individual myths and rituals." This exploration of the those relationships is explored at length as it related to the interactions between the Greeks on the both a large scale, as demonstrated with the extensive discussion of beliefs practiced by the polis, and on a smaller scale by the family and individual.
This text was originally published in 1977 in German by Walter Burkert, a scholar who has published numerous other texts and articles on the subject to include, but not limited to Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, (1972), Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual, (1979), Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. (1983), among others. Based upon the body of work produced by Burkert, coupled with the fact that said body of work remains relevant and utilized by scholars to this day, it is safe to assume that Burkert was an authority on not just one specific area, but had as great an understanding of Greek Religion on the whole as any of his contemporaries, if not a better one. Sources include primary material from Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and Xenocrates, but also delves into the archaeological record as interpreted by Evans and Nillson. Burkert, with his employment of the archaeological discoveries of his day, obviously appreciated the value that archaeology
could lend to the researcher in helping him to better understand his subject, rather than relying solely on written primary and secondary sources.
The book is divided with some attention to a chronology of events in Minoan and Mycenaean times, but then moves thematically into a discussion of the Gods, what role polytheism played in the Polis with specific attention to festivals and discussions of the
bases upon which those belief systems were predicated. Mystery sanctuaries, festivals, and Asceticism are discussed, with the final division of the text returning to a thematic examination of how many philosophers of the day viewed polytheistic traditions and subsequently broke from it.
Considering these factors, the text could be interpreted as best being utilized as a reference that is inclined toward the scholar or serious historian, rather than the general reader. It can become very dense at times and needs to be read from start to... Read more ›