Customer Reviews

Greek Religion and Society

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This collection of essays, edited by P. E. Easterling and J. V. Muir is a thorough but concise look at ancient Greek culture. It attempts to provide us with a simple introduction to Greek religion. The calibre of the articles in the collection is incredible. All of the essays are very readable, but also give the reader a lot of information. The article called 'Early Greek Views About Life After Death', written by N.J. Richardson is eloquent and captivating, including references to Homer's The Iliad, as well as ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles, Plato and Socrates. The only article which was a little too complicated was one written by J.N Coldstream, about the Greek temples. He went into much too much detail, boring the reader with intricate descriptions of the architecture of Sicilian temples, while straying from the original topic of Greek temples. Other than that faulty, i found the collection of articles simple, thorough (though somewhat general) and extremely readable.

A vastly wide-ranging series of articles on an all too often overlooked and demanding subject. Never wishing to contrast the opinion of another, it needs to be said that Professor J.N. Coldstream is an eminent scholar in the fields of both Ancient Greece and Greek Architecture. Those who devote much time in the search of detail where it is all too lacking will, indeed, charish his expertise and wealth of information. Throughout, this book offers intelligent and valuable insight. In general, modern thought does not adapt well to this subject, and such books as this help to lift the weight of time and fashion.

Contains 8 essays (plus the foreward by Finley) that explore different aspects of religion in the ancient Greek world. To see Greek religion as something other than a primitive, pre-scientific world of fairy tales is not easy. That these British scholars (especially John Gould and P.E. Easterling) have distilled their years of research into such eminently helpful essays, making Greek religion comprehensible and even respectable, is no small feat. I am thankful I came into possession of this book, even if some of the essays are not quite as great as the rest.