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Understanding Greek religion : a cognitive approach / Jennifer Larson.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Larson, Jennifer (Jennifer Lynn), author.
- Series:
- Understanding the ancient world
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Greece--Religion.
- Greece.
- Religion.
- Physical Description:
- xix, 410 pages ; 24 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2016.
- Summary:
- Understanding Greek Religion is one of the first attempts to fully examine any religion from a cognitivist perspective, applying methods and findings from the cognitive science of religion to the ancient Greek world. In this book, Jennifer Larson shows that many of the fundamentals of Greek religion, such as anthropomorphic gods, divinatory procedures, purity beliefs, reciprocity, and sympathetic magic arise naturally as by-products of normal human cognition. Drawing on evidence from across the ancient Greek world, Larson provides detailed coverage of Greek theology and local pantheons, rituals including processions, animal sacrifice and choral dance, and afterlife beliefs as they were expressed through hero worship and mystery cults. Eighteen in-depth essays illustrate the theoretical discussion with primary sources and include case studies of key cult inscriptions from Kyrene, Kos, and Miletos. This volume features maps, tables, and over twenty images to support and expand on the text, and will provide conceptual tools for understanding the actions and beliefs that constitute a religion. Additionally, Larson offers the first detailed discussion of cognition and memory in the transmission of Greek religious beliefs and rituals, as well as a glossary of terms and a bibliographical essay on the cognitive science of religion. Understanding Greek Religion is an essential resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of Greek culture and ancient Mediterranean religions. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- 1 What is Greek religion? 1
- Essay 1.1 Twelve gods, and other ways to limit a pantheon 23
- Essay 1.2 Homer's Hera and the Hera(s) of cult 31
- Essay 1.3 Reciprocity in Greek religion 40
- 2 Implicit theology and the (ir)rational 66
- Essay 2.1 Epiphanies of Athena 88
- Essay 2.2 What do the gods know? 95
- Essay 2.3 Myth, ritual and Adonis 102
- 3 Orthopraxy, identity and society 127
- Essay 3.1 The inclusiveness of the Panathenaic festival 142
- Essay 3.2 Dancing for the gods 148
- Essay 3.3 The Kyrene cathartic law 156
- 4 Ritual, festival and sacrifice 187
- Essay 4.1 Sacrificing to Zeus Polieus on Kos 204
- Essay 4.2 Theseus and the Athenian calendar 211
- Essay 4.3 Ritual form and the Greek evidence 219
- 5 Eschatology, mysteries and hero cults 250
- Essay 5.1 How mystical, were the Eleusinian Mysteries? 268
- Essay 5.2 Texts to accompany the dead 276
- Essay 5.3 Three heroic founders 283
- 6 Memory, continuity and change 310
- Essay 6.1 Memory and the Molpoi 327
- Essay 6.2 Heracles as a Pan-Mediterranean deity 336
- Essay 6.3 The origins of Sarapis 345.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780415688451
- 0415688450
- 9780415688468
- 0415688469
- OCLC:
- 909325697
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