Greek Religion

Archaic and Classical

Walter Burkert, John Raffan

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780631156246
• eBook ISBN: 9781118724972
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

"Greek Religion . . . already has the standing of a classic, and the publication of an English version, which incorporates new material and is in effect a second edition, demands a toast . . . Anyone who pretends to survey Greek religion must be phenomenally learned. Burkert is. His book is a marvel of professional scholarship."
— London Review of Books

"This book has established itself as a masterpiece, packed with learning but also rich in ideas and connections of every sort. Its appearance in a good English translation is an event not only for Hellenists but for all those interested in the study of religion . . . 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

Cover illustration: detail from an Attic vase, 450 B.C., showing a victory sacrifice (The Mansell Collection).

Notes

ABBREVIATIONS

Classical works are referred to by standard abbreviations. For secondary works referred to simply by the author’s surname, see the Bibliography at the end of the book.

The following abbreviated forms are used throughout the notes:

AA	Archäologischer Anzeiger
A & A	Antike und Abendland
AAA	Archaiologikà Análekta ex Athenôn
AAntHung	Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
ABV	J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase Painters, Oxford, 1956
ACl	L’Antiquité classique
AE	Archaiologikè Ephemerís
AF	L. Deubner, Attische Feste, Berlin, 1932
AJA	American Journal of Archaeology
AK	Antike Kunst
AM	Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung
ANET	Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, ed. J.B. Pritchard, Princeton, 2nd edn, 1955; Supplement, 1968
ANRW	Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini, Berlin, 1972–
ARV	J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase Painters, Oxford, 2nd edn, 1963
ARW	Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
AS	Anatolian Studies
ASAtene	Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene
BABesch	Bulletin van de Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Kennis van de Antieke Beschaving
BAGB	Bulletin de l’Association Guillaume Budé
BCH	Bulletin de correspondence hellénique
BICS	Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London
BJb	Bonner Jahrbücher
BMC	British Museum, Catalogue of Greek Coins
BSA	Annual of the British School at Athens
BSL	Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris
CAF	Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, ed. Th. Kock, Leipzig, 1880–88
CAH	The Cambridge Ancient History, I–II 2, Cambridge, 3rd edn, 1970–75
CGS	L.R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States I–V, Oxford, 1896–1909
CIG	Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum
CIL	Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
CIS	Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum
CMG	Corpus Medicorum Graecorum
CMS	Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel
CQ	Classical Quarterly
CRAI	Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres
DA	Dissertation Abstracts
Doc.	M. Ventris and J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge, 2nd edn, 1973
EAA	Enciclopedia dell’Arte Antica Classica e Orientale
FGrHist	F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin/Leiden 1923–58
GB	J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough I–XIII, London, 3rd edn, 1911–36
GdH	U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen I–II, Berlin, 1931–32
GF	M.P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste von religiöser Bedeutung mit Ausschluß der attischen, Berlin, 1906
GGR	M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I, Munich, 3rd edn, 1967; II, 2nd edn, 1961
GRBS	Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies
HN	W. Burkert, Homo Necans: the anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth, Berkeley, 1983
HR	History of Religions
HSCP	Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
IC	Inscriptiones Creticae
IE	H. Engelmann and R. Merkelbach, Die Inschriften von Erythrai und Klazomenai, I–II, Bonn, 1972–73
IF	Indogermanische Forschungen
IG	Inscriptiones Graecae
JCS	Journal of Cuneiform Studies
Jdl	Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts
JHistId	Journal of the History of Ideas
JHS	Journal of Hellenic Studies
JIES	Journal of Indo-European Studies
KA	P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer, Munich, 2nd edn, 1920
KAI	H. Donner and W. Röllig, Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften I–III, Wiesbaden, 2nd edn, 1966–69
KN	Knossos Tablets (see I 3.6 n. 2)
L & S	W. Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, Cambridge, Mass., 1972
LIMC	Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae I, Zürich, 1981
LSAM	F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées de l’Asie Mineure, Paris, 1955
LSCG	F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Paris, 1969
LSS	F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Supplement, Paris, 1962
MH	Museum Helveticum
MMR	M.P. Nilsson, The Minoan–Mycenaean...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface to the English Edition
• Introduction
• I Prehistory and the Minoan–Mycenaean Age
• II Ritual and Sanctuary
• III The Gods
• IV The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods
• V Polis and Polytheism
• VI Mysteries and Asceticism
• VII Philosophical Religion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of Greek Words
• Index