"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."
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