Customer Reviews

Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece

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I bought this book as soon as it came out. I became a fan of S.I. Johnston as soon as I read her Hekate book.

In this book she describes the evolvement of the relationship between the living and the dead in ancient Greece. Being a Greek I was amazed of how much it has survived of what Greek think as far as the dead are concerned. It is very rewarding to see that so much of the old religion is still around us and that Christianity has not destroyed everything yet...

Having said that, this book is an academic endeavour and not a New Age or Neo-Pagan writing. Mrs. Johnston is a true scholar and she does honour to the University she teaches.

Read her other books too.

This is a fabulous overview of death and related issues (miasma, psychopomps, ect) in Greece. It was even written in an interesting style, which is refreshing for an academic book.

Originally, I took it out of the library for research on Hekate (Ms. Iles Johnson's pet subject), but I got caught up and ended up reading the whole book instead of just the chapters pertinent to my work. Fabulous. Someday, I will add it to my own library.