On this page:
Recommended purchases
Either: Larson, J. (2007) Ancient Greek cults : a guide, London and NY: Routledge
Or: Mikalson, J. (2004) Ancient Greek religion, Oxford: Blackwell
Or: Price, S. (1999) Religions of the ancient Greeks, Cambridge: CUP
And: Burkert, W. (1985 [1977]) Greek religion, archaic and classical, tr. Raffan, J. Oxford :
1. General
*Items marked with an asterisk are especially recommended. ?indicates that there’s a copy in the Department Library (in the Greek Religion Module Box if it’s an article). The bibliography is arranged systematically, more or less following the order of the lectures.
Many of the books listed in this section have chapters on the more specific subjects of the lectures. For serious research there is also a new 5-volume reference work, the Thesaurus cultus et rituum antiquorum (ThesCRA). (2004-6, J. Paul Getty Museum). The articles cover particular elements of Greek, Roman and Etruscan religious practice, such as ‘Sacrifice’, ‘Prayer’, ‘Processions’, and are in a variety of languages (English, French, German and Italian). Each article includes a catalogue of ancient sources, including images and inscriptions as well as translated literary texts.
a) Starting points for study
Bremmer, J. (1994) Greek religion (= New Surveys in the Classics no. 24), Oxford
*Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P. (1992) Religion in the ancient Greek city, Cambridge: CUP
*Buxton, R. G. A. (ed. 2000) Oxford readings in Greek religion, Oxford
*Easterling, P.E. and Muir, J.V. (eds. 1985) Greek religion and society, Cambridge: CUP
Garland, R. (1994) Religion and the Greeks, Bristol: Bristol Classical Press
Gould, J. (2001) ‘On making sense of Greek religion’, in Myth, ritual, memory, and exchange : essays in Greek literature and culture, Oxford: OUP, 202-34 [also in Easterling and Muir 1985, 1-33]
*Larson, J. (2007) Ancient Greek cults : a guide, London and NY: Routledge
*Mikalson, J. (2004) Ancient Greek religion, Oxford: Blackwell
*Ogden, D. (ed. 2007) A companion to Greek religion, Oxford: Blackwell
Parker, R. (1986) ‘Greek Religion’, in The Oxford history of the classical world, Oxford: OUP, 254-74
*Pedley, J. (2005) Sanctuaries and the sacred in the ancient Greek world, Cambridge: CUP
*Price, S. (1999) Religions of the ancient Greeks, Cambridge: CUP
Price, S. and Kearns, E. (2003) The Oxford dictionary of classical myth and religion, Oxford: OUP
b) Greek religious belief and practice in general
Alcock, S.E. and Osborne, R. (1994) Placing the gods : sanctuaries and sacred space in ancient Greece, Oxford: OUP
?Alroth, B. (1992) ‘Changing modes in the representation of cult images’, in Hägg, R. (ed.) The iconography of Greek cult in the Archaic and Classical periods : proceedings of the First International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organised by the Swedish Institute at Athens and the European Cultural Centre of Delphi : Delphi, 16-18 November 1990, Liège
Asirvatham, S., Pache, C. and Watrous, J. (2001) Between magic and religion : interdisciplinary studies in ancient Mediterranean religion and society, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
Borgeaud, P. (2004) Mother of the gods : from Cybele to the Virgin Mary, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP
Bremmer, J. (2002) The rise and fall of the afterlife : the 1995 Read-Tuckwell lectures at the University of Bristol, London and New York: Routledge
Cole, S.G. (2004) Landscapes, gender, and ritual space : the ancient Greek experience, Berkeley: University of California Press
Detienne, M. and Vernant, J.P. ([1979] 1989) The Cuisine of Sacrifice Among the Greeks, tr. Wissing, P., Chicago: Chicago University Press
Dillon, M.P.J. (1997) Pilgrims and pilgrimage in ancient Greece, London and New York: Routledge
Emerson, M. (2007) Greek sanctuaries : an introduction (London: Duckworth)
Ferguson, J. (1989) Among the gods : an archaeological exploration of ancient Greek religion, London: Routledge
Flower, M.A. (2008) The seer in ancient Greece, Berkeley: University of California Press
Furley, W.D. (1981) Studies in the use of fire in ancient Greek religion, Salem: Ayer
Furley, W.D. (1995) ‘Praise and persuasion in Greek hymns’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 115: 29-46
Hägg, R., Marinatos, N. and Nordquist, G.C. (1988) Early Greek cult practice : proceedings of the fifth international symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 26-29 June, 1986, Stockholm: Paul Åströms
Hägg, R. (ed. 1999) Ancient Greek cult practice from the archaeological evidence : proceedings of the fourth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Swedish Institute at Athens, 22-24 October 1993, Stockholm: Paul Å ströms
Hannah, R. (2005) Greek and Roman calendars : constructions of time in the classical world, London: Duckworth
Harris, E.M. and Rubinstein, L. (2004) The law and the courts in ancient Greece, London: Duckworth (see section ‘religion and the sources of legitimacy’)
Isager, S. and Skydsgaard, J.E. (1992) Ancient Greek agriculture : an introduction, London and New York: Routledge, Part III ‘Gods and Agriculture’
Johnston, S.I. (ed. 2004) Religions of the ancient world : a guide, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP
Johnston, S.I. (2008) Ancient Greek divination, Oxford: Blackwell
Johnston, S.I. and Struck, P.T. (eds 2005), Mantikê : studies in ancient divination, Leiden: Brill
Kerényi, C. (1975) Zeus and Hera : archetypal image of father, husband, and wife, tr. Holme, C., London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
Larson, J. (2001) Greek nymphs : myth, cult, lore, Oxford/NY: OUP
Lissarrague, F. (2001) Greek vases : the Athenians and their images, USA: Riverside Books [See chapter ‘Men and gods’ (134-52) for illustrations of various religious rituals, and‘ Passages’ (112-31) on representations of death and marriage.]
Lloyd, A.B. (1997) What is a God? Studies in the nature of Greek divinity, London: Duckworth
Lloyd-Jones, H. (1971) The justice of Zeus.: University of California Press
Lonsdale, S. (1993) Dance and ritual play in Greek religion, Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins UP
Luck, G. (2000) Ancient pathways and hidden pursuits : religion, morals, and magic in the ancient world, Ann Arbor: Michigan UP
Lupu, E. (2004) Greek sacred law : a collection of new documents (NGSL), Leiden: Brill
Malkin, I. (1987) Religion and colonization in ancient Greece, Leiden: Brill
Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. (eds. 1993) Greek sanctuaries : new approaches, London: Routledge
Martin, L.H. (1987) Hellenistic religions, Oxford: OUP
Mikalson, J.D. (1991) Honor thy gods : popular religion in Greek tragedy, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
Melas, E. (ed. 1973) Temples and sanctuaries of ancient Greece : a companion guide, London: Thames and Hudson
Naiden, F.S. (2007) ‘The fallacy of the willing victim’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 127: 61-73
Parker, R. (1983) Miasma : pollution and purification in early Greek religion, Oxford: Clarendon
Pritchett, W.K. (1979) The Greek state at war, vol. III: Religion, Berkeley, etc.: California UP
Purvis, A.L. (2003) Singular dedications : founders and innovators of private cults in classical Greece, London and New York: Routledge
Richer, J. (1994) Sacred geography of the ancient Greeks : astrological symbolism in art, architecture, and landscape,, Albany, N.Y.: State University of NY Press
Robertson, N. (1992) Festivals and legends : the formation of Greek cities in the light of public ritual, Toronto, etc: University of Toronto Press
Spawforth, A. (2006) The complete Greek temples, London: Thames and Hudson
Straten, F.T. van (1992) ‘Votives and votaries in Greek sanctuaries’, in A. Schachter (ed.) Entretiens Hardt: Le Sanctuaire grec (Vandoeuvres-Geneva), 247-84; reprinted in Buxton, R.G.A. (ed. 2000) Oxford readings in Greek religion, Oxford, 191-223
Straten, F.T. van (1995) Hiera kala : images of animal sacrifice in archaic and classical Greecee, Leiden: Brill
c) Women’s ritual and gender issues
Blundell, S. (1996) Women in ancient Greece, Harvard, 98-139
*Blundell, S. and Williamson, M. (1998) The sacred and the feminine in ancient Greece, London and New York: Routledge [various articles relevant to marriage, death and girls’ initiation]
?Cole, S.G. (1992) ‘Gynaiki ou themis: gender difference in the Greek leges sacrae’, Helios 19: 104-22
Connelly, J.B. (2007) Portrait of a priestess : women and ritual in ancient Greece, Princeton NJ: PUP
Dillon, M.P.J. (2000) ‘Did Parthenoi attend the Olympic Games? Girls and women competing, spectating, and carrying out cult roles at Greek religious festivals’, Hermes. 128: 457-80
*Dillon, M.J.P. (2002) Girls and women in classical Greek religion, London and New York: Routledge
Foxhall, L. (1995) ‘Women’s ritual and men’s work in ancient Athens’, in Hawley, R. and Levick, B. (eds) Women in antiquity : new assessments, London and New York, 97-110
Goff, B. (2004) Citizen Bacchae : women's ritual practice in ancient Greece, Berkeley, etc
Johns, C. (1982) Sex or symbol? : erotic images of Greece and Rome, London: British Museum Publications
Neils, J. (2004) ‘Kitchen or cult? Women with mortars and pestles’, in Keay, S.and Moser, S. (eds) Greek art in view : essays in honour of Brian Sparkes, Oxford: Oxbow, 54-62
Osborne, R. (1993) ‘Women and sacrifice in classical Greece’, The Classical quarterly. 43: 392-405
?Prytz Johansen, J. (1975) ‘The Thesmophoria as a women’s festival’, Temenos. 11: 78-87
Schmitt Pantel, P. (ed. 1992) A History of women in the West / Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot, general editors. 1, From ancient goddesses to Christian saints, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP [See Loraux, N. ‘What is a goddess?’ (11-44) and Bruit Zaidman, L. ‘Pandora’s daughters and rituals in Grecian cities’ (338-76)]
d) Individual gods and heroes
Friedrich, P. (1978) The meaning of Aphrodite, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Routledge have recently started a series Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World, each volume of which covers a single god or hero, tracing their appearances in ancient literature, art and cult, and discussing their influence on post-classical culture. Some have more emphasis on religious ritual than others:
Gods:
*S. Deacy, Athena (London 2008)
*K. Dowden, Zeus (London 2005),
*F. Graf, Apollo (London 2008)
*R. Seaford, Dionysos (London 2006)
Heroes:
C. Dougherty, Prometheus (London 2005)
L. Edmunds, Oedipus (London 2006)
E. Griffiths, Medea (London 2005)
D. Ogden, Perseus (London 2008)
e) Myth and religion
*Bremmer, J.N. (ed. 1987) Interpretations of Greek mythology, London: Routledge
Burkert, W. (1970) ‘Jason, Hypsipyle, and new fire at Lemnos. A study in myth and ritual’, The Classical quarterly. n.s. 20: 1-16; reprinted in Buxton, R. G. A. (ed. 2000) Oxford readings in Greek religion, Oxford, 227-249
Burkert, W. (1979) Structure and history in Greek mythology and ritual, etc: University of California Press
Burkert, W. (1996) Creation of the sacred : tracks of biology in early religions, Cambridge: Harvard UP
Csapo, E. (2005) Theories of mythology, Oxford: Blackwells
*Dowden, K. (1992) The uses of Greek mythology, London: Routledge
Edmunds, L. (ed. 1990) Approaches to Greek myth, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP
Goldhill, S. and Osborne, R. (eds. 1999) Performance-culture and Athenian democracy, Cambridge: CUP
Gordon, R.L. (1981) Myth, religion and society : structuralist essays, Cambridge: CUP
*Graf, F. (1993) Greek mythology : an introduction, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP
Guépin, J.P. (1968) The tragic paradox : myth and ritual in Greek tragedy, Amsterdam: Hakkert
Kirk, G. S. (1970) Myth : its meaning and functions in ancient and other cultures (Sather classical lectures, vol. 40), Cambridge: CUP
f) Ancient sources
Homer and Hesiod are important literary sources for understanding some of the ideas which underlie Greek religion. Any translations of the The Iliad and The Odyssey will do; the The Homeric hymns can be found in a Loeb volume along with Hesiod, or rather more readably in the translations by M. Crudden (Oxford: OUP 2002) or D. Rayor (Berkely: U. of California Press 2004). There’s a handy Oxford World’s Classics volume of Hesiod’s Theogony ; and, Works and days, translated by M.L. West (1988). West is also responsible for a useful recent Loeb translation of the Greek epic fragments from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC (2003). A later writer of whom we’ll be making much use is Pausanias (tr. Levi, P. 1979 as Pausanias: Guide to Greece, 2 vols., Penguin). Some secondary reading on these sources contains much of relevance for Greek religion:
Alcock, S.E. and Thurnau, A.F. (eds) Pausanias : travel and memory in Roman Greece, Oxford/NY: OUP
Arafat, K. (1992) ‘Pausanias’ attitudes to antiquities’, The Annual of the British School at Athens. 87: 387-409
Arafat, K.W. (1996) Pausanias' Greece : ancient artists and Roman rulers, Cambridge: CUP
Dillon, M. (1997) Pilgrims and pilgrimage in ancient Greece, London: Routledge
Edwards, A.T. (2004) Hesiod's Ascra, Berkeley: University of California Press
Elsner, J. (1992) ‘Pausanias: a Greek pilgrim in the Roman World’, Past & present. 135: 3-29
Gould, J. (2001) ‘Herodotus and religion’, in Myth, ritual, memory, and exchange : essays in Greek literature and culture, Oxford: OUP, 359-77
Frazer, J.G. (1898) Pausanias's Description of Greece, London: Macmillan
Habicht, C. (1999) Pausanias' Guide to ancient Greece, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
Harrison, T. (2000) Divinity and history : the religion of Herodotus, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Hutton, W. (2005) Describing Greece : landscape and literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias, Cambridge: CUP
Miller, A.M. (1986) From Delos to Delphi : a literary study of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Leiden: Brill
Penglase, C. (1994) Greek myths and Mesopotamia : parallels and influence in the Homeric hymns and Hesiod, London: Routledge
Pretzler, M. (2007) Pausanias : travel writing in ancient Greece, London: Duckworth
Pritchett, W.K. (1999) Pausanias Periegetes, Gieben 1998
Richardson, N.J. (1974) The Homeric hymn to Demeter, Oxford: OUP
Steiner, D. (2001) Images in mind : statues in archaic and classical Greek literature and thought, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
2. Athenian Religion
*Bowie, A.M. (1993) Aristophanes : myth, ritual and comedy, Cambridge: CUP
Connelly, J.B. (1996) ‘Parthenon and Parthenoi: a mythological interpretation of the Parthenon frieze’, The American journal of archaeology. 100: 53-80
Cosmopoulos, M.B. (ed.) The Parthenon and its sculptures (Cambridge 2004) – see articles by Neils (43- 62) and Robertson (86-113) on imagery connected with Panathenaic ritual.
Csapo, E. (1997) ‘Riding the phallus for Dionysos. Iconology, ritual, and gender-role de/construction’, Phoenix. 51: 253-95
Garland, R. (1990) ‘Priests and power in Classical Athens’, in M. Beard and J. North (eds) Pagan priests : religion and power in the ancient world, London: Duckworth
Hamilton, R. (1992) Choes and Anthesteria : Athenian iconography and ritual, University of Michigan Press
Harris, D. (1996) The treasures of the Parthenon and Erechtheion, Oxford: OUP
Hedreen, G. (2004) ‘The return of Hephaistos, Dionysiac procession ritual and the creation of a visual narrative’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 124: 38-64
Humphries, S.C. (2004) The strangeness of gods : historical perspectives on the interpretation of Athenian religion, Oxford: OUP – see esp. ch. 4 ‘A sense of agency: religion in the Attic demes’ (130-96) and ch.6 ‘Metamorphoses of tradition: the Athenian Anthesteria’ (223-75)
Mikalson, J.D. (1983) Athenian popular religion, Chapel Hill and London
Mikalson, J.D. (1998) Religion in Hellenistic Athens, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
Munn, M. (2006) The mother of the gods, Athens, and the tyranny of Asia : a study of sovereignty in ancient religion, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
Neils, J. (ed. 1992) Goddess and polis : the Panathenaic Festival in ancient Athens, Princeton NJ: PUP
Neils, J. (ed. 1996) Worshipping Athena : Panathenaia and Parthenon, Madison: University of Wisconsin P.
Neils, J. and Tracy, S.V. (2003) The games at Athens, Athens: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
?Osborne, R. (1985) ‘The religious factor: confirmation or alternative?’, in Demos : the discovery of classical Attika, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 154-82
*Parke, H.W. (1977) Festivals of the Athenians, London: Thames and Hudson
*Parker, R. (1996) Athenian religion : a history, Oxford: Clarendon
Parker, R. (2005) Polytheism and society at Athens, Oxford: OUP
Pickard-Cambridge, A.W. (1968) The dramatic festivals of Athens, 2nd ed. Oxford
Robertson, N. (1985) ‘The origin of the Panathenaea’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. 128: 231-95
Rosivach, V.J. (1994) The system of public sacrifice in fourth-century Athens, Atlanta
Shapiro, H.A. (1989) Art and cult under the tyrants in Athens, Mainz 1989
Shear, J.L. (2003) ‘Prizes from Athens: the list of Panathenaic prizes and the sacred oil’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 142: 87-108
Simon, E. (1983) Festivals of Attica : an archaeological commentary, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (2002) Tragedy and Athenian religion, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
Tyrrell, W.B. and Brown, F.S. (1991) Athenian myths and institutions : words in action, New York: OUP
Versnel, H.S. (1992) ‘The festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria’, Greece and Rome. 39: 31-55
Wilson, P. (2000) The Athenian institution of the khoregia : the chorus, the city, and the stage, Cambridge: CUP
Wilson, P. (ed. 2007) The Greek theatre and festivals : documentary studies, Oxford: OUP
3. Spartan Religion
Dawkins, R.M. (ed. 1929) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta : excavated and described by members of the British School at Athens, 1906-1910, London: Macmillan
Ducat, J. Spartan education : youth and society in the classical period (Swansea 2006) — see chs 6 and 8.
Fitzhardinge, L.F. (1980) The Spartans, London: Thames and Hudson
Hooker, J.T. (1980), ‘Cults and cult-places’, in The ancient Spartans London: Dent, 47-70
Malkin, I. (1994) Myth and territory in the Spartan Mediterranean, Cambridge: CUP
*?Parker, R. (1989) ‘Spartan religion’, in Powell, A. (ed.) Classical Sparta : techniques behind her success, London and New York: Routledge, 142-72
Pettersson, M. (1992) Cults of Apollo at Sparta : the Hyakinthia the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia, Stockholm: Paul Åström
Richer, N. (1999) ‘Aidos at Sparta’, in Powell, A. and Hodkinson, S. (eds) Sparta : new perspectives Swansea: Classical Press of Wales
Richer, N. (2004) ‘The Hyakinthia of Sparta’, in Figueira, T.J. (ed.) Spartan society, Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 77-102
Richer, N. (2005) ‘Personified abstractions in Laconia: suggestions on the origins of Phobos’, in E.J. Stafford and J.E. Herrin (eds) Personification in the Greek world : from antiquity to Byzantium, Aldershot: Ashgate, 111-22
Scanlon, T.F. (2002) Eros & Greek athletics, Oxford
4. Panhellenic Sanctuaries
See various articles in Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. Greek sanctuaries : new approaches (London: Routledge 1993), especially Morgan, C. ‘The origins of pan-Hellenism’ (pp.18-44) and Marinatos, N. ‘What were Greek sanctuaries? A synthesis’ (pp.228-33).
For images of all the sanctuaries, see especially: Valavanis, P. (2004) Games and sanctuaries in Ancient Greece : Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, Nemea, Athens, Los Angeles: J.P. Getty Museum
a) Delphi and Apollo
Bowden, H. (2004) Classical Athens and the Delphic oracle : divination and democracy, Cambridge: CUP
*Chappell, M. (2006) ‘Delphi and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo’, The Classical quarterly. 56: 331-48
Curnow, T. (2004) The oracles of the ancient world, London: Duckworth
Fontenrose, J. (1959) Python : a study of Delphic myth and its origins, Berkeley, etc: California UP
*Fontenrose, J. (1978) The Delphic oracle, its responses and operations, with a catalogue of responses, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
Maurizio, L. (1995) ‘Anthropology and spirit possession: a reconsideration of the Pythia’s role at Delphi’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 115: 69-86
Morgan, C. (1990) Athletes and oracles : the transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the eighth century BC, Cambridge: CUP
Parke, H.W. and Wormell, D.E.W. (1956) The Delphic oracle, Oxford: Blackwell [Cf. Parke, H.W. (1985) The oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor, London: Croom Helm]
*Parker, R. (1985) ‘Greek states and Greek oracles’, in Cartledge, P.A. and Harvey, F.D. (eds) Crux : essays in Greek history presented to G.E.M. de Ste. Croix on his 75th birthday., Exeter, 298-326; reprinted in Buxton, R. G. A. (ed. 2000) Oxford readings in Greek religion, Oxford, 76-108
*Price, S. (1985) ‘Delphi and divination’, in Easterling, P.E. and Muir, J.V. (eds) Greek religion and society, Cambridge: CUP, 128-154
*Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1987) ‘Myth as history: the previous owners of the Delphic Oracle’, in Bremmer, J.N. (ed. 1987) Interpretations of Greek mythology, London: Routledge, 215-41
On recent geological theories:
De Boer, J.Z., Jale, J.R. and Chanton, J. (2001) ‘New evidence of the geological origins of the ancient Delphic oracle (Greece)’, Geology. 29: 707-10
Piccardi, L. (2001) ‘Active faulting at Delphi, Greece: seismotectonic remarks and a hypothesis for the geologic environment of a myth’, Geology. 28: 651-4
b) Olympia, Zeus and the Games
Alfen, P. van (2004) A simple souvenir : coins and medals of the Olympic Games, Oxford: Oxbow
Ashmole, B. (1967) Olympia: the sculptures of the temple of Zeus, Oxford: Phaidon Press
Drees, L. (1968) Olympia: gods, artists and athletes, London: Pall Mall Press
Hard, R. (2004) Olympic games and other Greek athletics, London and New York: Routledge
Hornblower, S. and Morgan, C. (eds 2007) Pindar's poetry, patrons, and festivals : from archaic Greece to the Roman Empire, Oxford: OUP
Miller, S.G. (2004) Ancient Greek athletics, Cambridge, Mass.: Yale UP
*Morgan, C. (1990) Athletes and oracles : the transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the eighth century BC, Cambridge: CUP
Parke, H.W. (1967) The oracles of Zeus : Dodona, Olympia, Ammon, Oxford: Blackwell
Phillips, D. and Pritchard, D. (eds 2003) Sport and festival in the ancient Greek world, London: Duckworth
Raschke, W.J. (ed. 1988) The Archaeology of the Olympics : the Olympics and other festivals in antiquity, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press
Scanlon, T.F. (2002) Eros & Greek athletics, Oxford: OUP
Sinn, U. (2000) Olympia. English, Max Weiner
Spivey, N. (2005) The ancient Olympics, Oxford: OUP
c) Dodona
see also Johnston 2008 (above, under 4 (a))
Dakaris S. I. (1971) Archaeological guide to Dodona, Athens
*Parke, H.W. (1967) The oracles of Zeus : Dodona, Olympia, Ammon, Oxford: Blackwell
d) Nemea
Hill, B.H. (1966) The Temple of Zeus at Nemea, Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Miller, S.G. (ed. 1990) Nemea : a guide to the site and museum, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
e) Isthmia
Broneer, O.T. (1971-3) Isthmia: excavations by the University of Chicago, Vol.1 Temple of Poseidon and Vol.2 Topography and architecture, Princeton, N.J.: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
f) Delos
The Brotherton has a full set of archaeological reports from Delos (search under ‘Delos’), in French... Exploration archéologique de Delos
Mikalson, J.D. (1998) Religion in Hellenistic Athens, Berkeley: University of California Press[Has a whole chapter on Athens’ religious relationship with Delos, 208-41.]
Rauh, N.K. (1993) The sacred bonds of commerce : religion, economy, and trade society at Hellenistic Roman Delos, 166-87 B. C., Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben
5. Mystery Cults
Betegh, G. (2004) The Derveni papyrus : cosmology, theology and interpretation, Cambridge: CUP
Bianchi, U. (1976) The Greek mysteries (Iconography of Religions XVII.3), Leiden: Brill
*Burkert, W. (1987) Ancient mystery cults, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
*Cosmopoulos, M. (2002) Greek mysteries : the archaeology and ritual of ancient Greek secret cults, London and New York: Routledge
Edmonds, R.G. (2004) Myths of the underworld journey : Plato, Aristophanes, and the "Orphic" gold tablets, Cambridge
Godwin, J. (1981) Mystery religions in the ancient world, London
Meyer, M.W. (1999) The Ancient mysteries : a sourcebook : sacred texts of the mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, Pennsylvania UP
a) The Eleusinian Mysteries
Cavanaugh, M.B. (1996) Eleusis and Athens : documents in finance, religion, and politics in the fifth century B.C, Atlanta: Scholars Press
Clinton, K. (1992) Myth and cult : the iconography of the Eleusinian mysteries : the Martin P. Nilsson lectures on Greek religion, delivered 19-21 November 1990 at the Swedish Institute at Athens, Stockholm: Swedish Institute at Athens
Clinton, K. (1993) ‘The sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis’, in Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. (eds) Greek sanctuaries : new approaches, London: Routledge, 110-24
*Foley, H.P. (ed. 1994) The Homeric hymn to Demeter : translation, commentary, and interpretive essays, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press [?Extracts: commentary, background]
Kerényi, C. (1967) Eleusis : archetypal image of mother and daughter, New York: Bollingen Foundation
*Mylonas, G.E. (1961) Eleusis and the Eleusinian mysteries, Princeton
Nixon, L. (1995) ‘The cults of Demeter and Kore’, in Hawley, R. and Levick, B. (eds.) Women in antiquity : new assessments, London and New York, 75-96
?Parker, R. (1991) ‘The Hymn to Demeter and the Homeric Hymns’, Greece and Rome. 38: 1-17
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1997) ‘Reconstructing change: ideology and the Eleusinian Mysteries’, in Golden, M. and Toohey, P. (eds)Inventing ancient culture : historicism, periodization and the ancient world (London and New York 1997), 132-64
Wasson, R.G. (repr. 1978) The road to Eleusis : unveiling the secret of the mysteries, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich [This comes with a health warning!]
b) Dionysian cult
Bremmer, J.N. ‘Greek Maenadism reconsidered’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 55: 267-86
Carpenter, T.H. and Faraone, C.A. (eds 1993) Masks of Dionysus, Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press
Detienne, M. (1979) Dionysos slain, tr. Muellner, M. and L., Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP
Detienne, M. (1989) Dionysos at large, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP
Gould, J. (2001) ‘Dionysus and the Hippy convoy: ritual, myth, and metaphor in the cult of Dionysos’, in Myth, ritual, memory, and exchange : essays in Greek literature and culture, Oxford: OUP, 269-82
Graf, F. and Johnston, S.I. (2007) Ritual texts for the afterlife : Orpheus and the Bacchic gold tablets, London and New York: Routledge
Kerényi, K. (1996) Dionysos : archetypal image of indestructible life, Princeton, N.J.: PUP
Keuls, E. (1984) ‘Male-female interaction in fifth-century Dionysiac ritual as shown in Attic vase-painting’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 55: 287-97
Kraemer (1979) ‘Ecstasy and Possession: the attraction of women to the cult of Dionysus’, The Harvard theological review. 72
Lada-Richards, I. (1999) Initiating Dionysus : ritual and theatre in Aristophanes' Frogs, Oxford: OUP
Otto, W.F. (1995) Dionysus : myth and cult, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Seaford, R. (1981) ‘Dionysiac drama and the Dionysiac Mysteries’, The Classical quarterly. 31: 252-75
c) The Kabeiroi and Samothrace
We have most of the series of Samothrace volumes published by the excavators. See especially Vol. 1 (1958) The ancient literary sources , Vol. 3 (1965) The Hieron and Vol. 5 (1982) The Temenos.
Burkert, W. ‘Concordia discors: the literary and archaeological evidence on the sanctuary of Samothrace’, in Marinatos, N. and Hägg, R. Greek sanctuaries : new approaches (London 1993), 178-91
Cole, S.G. (1984) Theoi Megaloi : the cult of the great gods at Samothrace (= EPRO 96), Leiden: Brill
6. The Human Life-Cycle
a) Marriage
Blundell, S. (2004), ‘Scenes from a marriage: viewing the imagery on a lebes gamikos’, in Keay, S.and Moser, S. (eds) Greek art in view : essays in honour of Brian Sparkes, Oxford: Oxbow, 39-53
?Ferrari, G. (2003) ‘What kind of rite of passage was the ancient Greek wedding?’, in Dodd, D. (ed.) Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and narratives : new critical perspectives, London and New York, Routledge, 27-42
Leduc, C. (1992) ‘Marriage in ancient Greece’, in Schmitt Pantel, P. (ed.) A History of women in the West / Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot, general editors. 1, From ancient goddesses to Christian saints, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 235-94
*Oakley, J.H. and Sinos, R.H. (1993) The wedding in ancient Athens, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press
Oakley, J.H. (1995) ‘Nuptial nuances: wedding images in non-wedding scenes of myth’, in Reeder, E.D. (ed.) Pandora : women in classical Greece, Baltimore
b) Death
Davies, J. (1999) Death, burial, and rebirth in the religions of antiquity, London: Routledge
Day, J.W. (1989) ‘Rituals in stone: early Greek grave epigrams and monuments’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 109: 1-28
Humphreys, S.C. (1980) ‘Family tombs and tomb cult in ancient Athens’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 100: 96-126
Garland, R. (1985) The Greek way of death, London: Duckworth
Kurtz, D.C. and Boardman, J. (1971) Greek burial customs, London: Thames and Hudson
Morris, I. (1987) Burial and ancient society : the rise of the Greek city-state, CambridgeUP
*Morris, I. (1992) Death-ritual and social structure in classical antiquity, Cambridge UP
?Morris, I. (1995) ‘Burning the dead in archaic Athens: animals, men and heroes’, in Verbanck-Piérard, A. and Viviers, D. (eds), Culture et cité : l'avènement d'Athènes à l'époque archaïque : actes du colloque international organisé à l'Université libre de Bruxelles du 25 au 27 avril 1991 par l'Institut des Hautes Etudes de Belgique et la Fondation Archéologique de l'U.L.B. (1995), 45-74
Richter, G.M.A. (1988) The archaic gravestones of Attica, Bristol: BCP
*Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1995) '`Reading' Greek death : to the end of the classical period, Oxford
c) Initiation
Calame, C. (2001) Choruses of young women in ancient Greece : their morphology, religious role, and social function, rev. ed. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
L. Cleland (2005) The Brauron clothing catalogues : text, analysis, glossary and translation (BAR Series 1428), Oxford
Cole, S.G. (1984) ‘The social function of rituals of maturation: the Koureion and the Arkteia’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 55: 233-44
Dodd, D. (ed. 2003) Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and narratives : new critical perspectives, London and New York, Routledge [?See especially articles by Faraone on the arkteia, and Ferrari on marriage as initiation.]
*Dowden, K. (1989) Death and the maiden : girls' initiation rites in Greek mythology, London: Routledge
Gershenson, D.E. (1991) Apollo the Wolf-god, McLean: Institute for the Study of Man
Kahil, L. (1983) ‘Mythological repertoire of Brauron’, in Moon, W.G. (ed.) Ancient Greek art and iconography, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 231-44
King, H. (1993) ‘Bound to bleed: Artemis and Greek women’, in Cameron, A. and Kuhrt, A. (eds.) Images of women in antiquity, London: Routledge,109-27
Neils, J. and Oakley, J.H. (2003) Coming of age in ancient Greece : images of childhood from the classical past (New Haven)
*Padilla, M.W. (ed. 1999) Rites of passage in ancient Greece : literature, religion, society, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press [see e.g. Ham, G.L. ‘The choes and Anthesteria reconsidered: male maturation rites and the Peloponnesian Wars’]
Roussel, P. ‘Recherches sur l’ephebie attique et en particulier sur la date de l’institution’, Revue des études grecques. (Paris 1920)
Scanlon, T.F. (2002) Eros & Greek athletics, Oxford: OUP
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (1988) Studies in girls' transitions : aspects of the arkteia and age representation in Attic iconography, Athens: Kardamitsa
d) Sacred Prostitution
[This isn’t covered in the lectures, but you might be interested!]
Beard, M. and Henderson, J. ‘With this body I thee worship: sacred prostitution in antiquity’, Gender & history. 9.3 (1997) 480-503
Kurke, L. ‘Pindar and the prostitutes’, Arion. 42 (1996) 49-75
MachLachlan, B. ‘Sacred prostitution and Aphrodite’, Studies in religion = Sciences religieuses. 21 (1992) 145-62
7. Hero Cults
Antonaccio, C.M. (1995) An archaeology of ancestors : tomb cult and hero cult in early Greece, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
Boedeker, D. (1998) ‘The new Simonides and heroization at Plataia’, in Fisher, N. and van Wees, H. (eds) Archaic Greece : new approaches and new evidence, London: Duckworth, 231-49
Bowden, H. (1993) ‘Hoplites and Homer: warfare, hero cult, and the ideology of the polis’, in Rich, J. and Shipley, G. (eds.) War and society in the Greek world, London and NY
Clay, D. (2004) Archilochos heros : the hero cult of poets in the Greek polis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP
Currie, B. (2005) Pindar and the cult of heroes, Oxford: OUP
?Ekroth, G. (2000) ‘Offerings of blood in Greek hero-cults’, in Pirenne-Delforge, V. and Suárez de la Torre, E. (eds), Héros et héroïnes dans les mythes et les cultes grecs : actes du colloque organisé à l'Université de Valladolid du 26 au 29 mai 1999 (Kernos Suppl. 10), Liége, 263-80
*Ekroth, G. (2002) The sacrificial rituals of Greek hero-cults in the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods, Athens and Liège
*Hägg, R. (ed. 1999) Ancient Greek hero cult : proceedings of the Fifth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Göteborg University, 21-23 April 1995, Stockholm
Humphreys, S.C. (1980) ‘Family tombs and tomb cult in Ancient Athens’ The journal of Hellenic studies. 100: 96-126
Johnston, S.I. (1999) Restless dead : encounters between the living and the dead in ancient Greece, Berkeley, etc: University of California Press
Hadzisteliou-Price, T. ‘Hero cult and Homer’, Historia. 22 (1973) pp.?
Kearns, E. ‘The nature of heroines’, in The sacred and the feminine in ancient Greece, 96-110
Kearns, E. (1989) The heroes of Attica (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 57), London: ICS
Kearns, E. (1998) ‘The nature of heroines’, in Blundell, S. and Williamson, M. (eds) The sacred and the feminine in ancient Greece, London and New York: Routledge, 96-110
*Lyons, D.J. (1997) Gender and immortality : heroines in ancient Greek myth and cult, Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP
Mills, S. (1997) Theseus, tragedy, and the Athenian Empire, Oxford: OUP
Nock, A.D. ‘The cult of heroes’, in Stewart, Z. (ed.) Essays on religion and the ancient world vol. 1 (Oxford 1972)
Pache, C.O. (2004) Baby and child heroes in ancient Greece, Chicago: Illinois UP
Shapiro, H.A. (1995) ‘The cult of heroines: Kekrops’ daughters’, in Reeder, E.D. (ed.) Pandora : women in classical Greece, Princeton, NJ: Princteon UP, 39-48
Snodgrass, A. (1988) ‘The archaeology of the hero’, in Annali dell’Instituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, Sezione di Archeologia e Storia Antica 10: 19-26; reprinted in Buxton, R. G. A. (ed. 2000) Oxford readings in Greek religion, Oxford, 180-190
Spencer, N. (ed. 1995) Time, tradition, and society in Greek archaeology : bridging the 'great divide', London: Routledge [articles on tomb/hero cult]
Visser, M. ‘Worship your enemy: aspects of the cult of heroes in ancient Greece’, The Harvard theological review. 75 (1982) 403-28
Walker, H.J. (1995) Theseus and Athens, New York: Oxford University Press
8. Asklepios and Healing Cults
Aleshire, S.B. (1989) The Athenian Asklepieion : the people, their dedications, and the inventories, Amsterdam: Gieben
Aleshire, S.B. (1991) Asklepios at Athens : epigraphic and prosopographic essays on the Athenian healing cults, Amsterdam: Gieben
Burford, A. (1969) The Greek temple builders at Epidauros : a social and economic study of building in the Asklepian sanctuary, during the fourth and early third centuries B.C, Liverpool: LUP
Connelly, A. (1998) ‘Was Sophocles heroised as Dexion?’, The journal of Hellenic studies. 118: 1-20
*Edelstein, E.J. and L. (1975 [1945]) Asclepius : a collection and interpretation of the testimonies., Baltimore, repr. New York
Garland, R. (1992) Introducing new gods : the politics of Athenian religion, London: Duckworth
Kerényi, C. (1959) Asklepios : archetypal image of the physician's existence, New York
King, H. (1998) ‘Asklepios and women’s healing’, in Hippocrates' woman : reading the female body in ancient Greece , London and New York: Routledge, 99-113
?Stafford, E.J. (2000) ‘Hygieia: “not a goddess but a gift of god”?’, in Worshipping virtues : personification and the divine in ancient Greece, London: Duckworth/University of Wales Press, 147-71
Tomlinson, R.A. (1983) Epidauros, London: Granada, 1983
9. ‘New’ Cults
*Borgeaud, P. (1988) The cult of Pan in Ancient Greece., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Detienne, M. ([1972] 1977) The gardens of Adonis : spices in Greek mythology, Hassocks: Harvester Press
*Garland, R. (1992) Introducing new gods : the politics of Athenian religion, London: Duckworth
Parker, R. (1996) ‘The fifth century: new gods’ and ‘The fourth century’ in R. Parker, Athenian religion : a history, Oxford: Clarendon, 152-98 and 218-255
Shapiro, H.A. (1993) Personifications in Greek art : the representation of abstract concepts, 600-400 B.C.., Zurich
?Stafford, E.J. (2000) Worshipping virtues : personification and the divine in ancient Greece, London: Duckworth/University of Wales Press
?Stafford, E.J. (2006) ‘Personification in Greek religious thought and practice’, in Ogden, D. (ed.) A companion to Greek religion, Oxford: Blackwell, 71-85 [This is a short version of the book!]
Stafford, E.J. and Herrin, E. (2005) Personification in the Greek world : from antiquity to Byzantium, Aldershot: Ashgate – see especially articles by Burkert, Lazongas, Richer, Allan and Kovaleva.
10. Alternative Systems and Criticisms of Traditional Religion
Guthrie, W. K. C. ([1952] 1993) Orpheus and Greek religion : a study of the Orphic movement., Princeton: Princeton UP
Humphries, S.C. (2004) ‘Dynamics of the Greek “breakthrough”: the dialogue between philosophy and religion’, in The strangeness of gods : historical perspectives on the interpretation of Athenian religion, Oxford: OUP, 51-76
Muir, J.V. (1985) ‘Religion and the new education: the challenge of the Sophists’, in Easterling, P.E. and Muir, J.V. (eds) Greek religion and society, Cambridge: CUP, 191-218
Parker, R. (1996) ‘The trial of Socrates: and a religious crisis?’ in Athenian religion : a history, Oxford: Clarendon, 199-217
Veyne, P. (1988 [1983]) Did the Greeks believe in their myths?., tr. Wissing, P., Chicago
West, M.L. (1983) The Orphic poems, Oxford: OUP