Distinguished experts from a range of disciplines with a common interest in late antiquity probe the apparent paradox of pagan monotheism, and reach a better understanding of the historical roots of Christianity.

The study of ancient Greek religion has been excitingly renewed in the last thirty years. Key areas are: religion and politics; archaeological finds; myth and ritual; gender; problems raised by the very notion of 'religion'. This volume contains challenging papers (updated especially for this collection) by some of the most innovative participants in this renewal.

Whether as muse, silver goddess, nourishing mother, priestess, maid, siren or witch, the influence of the Moon on our personality and perception is one of the least understood factors in our daily lives. Luna has fascinated, inspired, and frightened us since the dawn of human history yet She of the Three Faces is the clue to our most emotional and instinctive selves. This new work by Paul F. Newman probes the subtle meanings of habit and the irrational that the astrological Moon conveys and how we can comprehend it and make use of it for our benefit and security. The triple aspect of Luna is treated as paramount with examples of the effect of New Moon, Full Moon and Old Moon in the monthly round. There is also a new way of grasping the consequence of New and Full Moons according to their declinational hemisphere, and the difference between summer and winter moons. While all computational aspects of the Moon are covered (phases, cycles, moon mansions, progressed moons, magic squares etc.) along with the meaning of how these things affect us, it is the poetic side of Luna that equally informs our approach. A substantial part of the book also covers the Black Moon Lilith, (the Moon at apogee), with new insights into this lady of noire and her astrological resonance. From the fall of dew to the markings on a cheetah's eyes, there is more to the Moon than we know...

What did Zeus mean to the Greeks? And who was Hera, united with Zeus historically and archetypally as if they were a human pair? C. Kerenyi fills a gap in our knowledge of the religious history of Europe by responding to these questions. Examining the word Zeus and its Greek synonyms theos and daimon, the author traces the origins of Greek religion in the Minoan-Mycenacan civilization. He shows how Homer's view of the gods decisively shaped the literary and artistic tradition of Greek divine mythology. The emergence of the Olympian family is seen as the expression of a humane Zeus cult determined by the father image but formed within the domain of Hera. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Jane Harrison examines the festivals of ancient Greek religion to identify the primitive "substratum" of ritual and its persistence in the realm of classical religious observance and literature. In Harrison's preface to this remarkable book, she writes that J. G. Frazer's work had become part and parcel of her "mental furniture" and that of others studying primitive religion. Today, those who write on ancient myth or ritual are bound to say the same about Harrison. Her essential ideas, best developed and most clearly put in the Prolegomena, have never been eclipsed.

"There is something of a paradox about our access to ancient Greek religion. We know too much, and too little. The materials that bear on it far outreach an individual's capacity to assimilate: so many casual allusions in so many literary texts over more than a millennium, so many direct or indirect references in so many inscriptions from so many places in the Greek world, such an overwhelming abundance of physical remains. But genuinely revealing evidence does not often cluster coherently enough to create a vivid sense of the religious realities of a particular time and place. Amid a vast archipelago of scattered islets of information, only a few are of a size to be habitable." from the Preface

In On Greek Religion, Robert Parker offers a provocative and wide-ranging entree into the world of ancient Greek religion, focusing especially on the interpretive challenge of studying a religious system that in many ways remains desperately alien from the vantage point of the twenty-first century. One of the world's leading authorities on ancient Greek religion, Parker raises fundamental methodological questions about the study of this vast subject. Given the abundance of evidence we now have about the nature and practice of religion among the ancient Greeks including literary, historical, and archaeological sources how can we best exploit that evidence and agree on the central underlying issues? Is it possible to develop a larger, "unified" theoretical framework that allows for coherent discussions among archaeologists, anthropologists, literary scholars, and historians?

In seven thematic chapters, Parker focuses on key themes in Greek religion: the epistemological basis of Greek religion; the relation of ritual to belief; theories of sacrifice; the nature of gods and heroes; the meaning of rituals, festivals, and feasts; and the absence of religious authority. Ranging across the archaic, classical, and Hellenistic periods, he draws on multiple disciplines both within and outside classical studies. He also remains sensitive to varieties of Greek religious experience. Also included are five appendixes in which Parker applies his innovative methodological approach to particular cases, such as the acceptance of new gods and the consultation of oracles. On Greek Religion will stir debate for its bold questioning of disciplinary norms and for offering scholars and students new points of departure for future research."

The Evolution of Religious Doctrines From the Eschatology of the Ancient Egyptians. "In writing the explanation of the Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, I have gone back to the foundation of the human as a beginning, and traced these signs from the first Pygmies, and their then meaning, up to the latter-day Christians, and shown the evolution and meaning of the same, back to the Primordial Signs and Symbols and Sign Language, which have never been studied or taken into account either in Freemasonry, the Christian doctrines or the Eschatology of the Egyptians." Partial Contents: Freemasonry Generally, Totemism; Hieroglyphics; Remains of Ritual found amongst the Zapotecs, Mexicans, People of Yucatan and Central America; Myths and Legends same as Egyptian; Tribes of West Africa; Birthplace of Man and various Exodes; The Pygmies; Druids and Israelites; Chaldeans; Origin of the Zodiac; Oriental Origins; The Incas; The Buddhists; Steller to Solar Mythos; Origins and Explanations of Other