Table Of ContentTHEOLOGIES OF ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION
Studied for many years by scholars with Christianising assumptions, Greek
religion has often been said to be quite unlike Christianity: a matter of par-
ticular actions (orthopraxy), rather than particular beliefs (orthodoxies).
This volume dares to think that, both in and through religious practices and
in and through religious thought and literature, the ancient Greeks engaged
in a sustained conversation about the nature of the gods and how to repre-
sent and worship them. It excavates the attitudes towards the gods implicit
in cult practice and analyses the beliefs about the gods embedded in such
diverse texts and contexts as comedy, tragedy, rhetoric, philosophy, ancient
Greek blood sacrifice, myth and other forms of storytelling. The result is
a richer picture of the supernatural in ancient Greece, and a whole series
of fresh questions about how views of and relations to the gods changed
over time.
ESTHER EIDINOW is Associate Professor in Ancient Greek History at the
University of Nottingham. She has a particular interest in ancient Greek re-
ligion and magic. Her publications include Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among
the Ancient Greeks (2007, rev. edn 2013), Luck, Fate and Fortune: Antiquity
and its Legacy (2011) and Envy, Poison and Death: Women on Trial in Ancient
Athens (2015). She has co-edited (jointly with J. Kindt) The Oxford Handbook
of Ancient Greek Religion (2015).
JULIA KINDT is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics
and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. Her publications include
Rethinking Greek Religion (Cambridge, 2012) and Revisiting Delphi: Religion
and Storytelling in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 2016). She has co-edited
(jointly with E. Eidinow) The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion
(2015) and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Ancient
History and a senior editor of the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Religion.
ROBIN OSBORNE is Professor of Ancient History at the University of
Cambridge and a Fellow of King’s College and of the British Academy. His
work ranges widely over Greek history, archaeology and art history. His
most recent books are Athens and Athenian Democracy (Cambridge, 2010),
The History Written on the Classical Greek Body (Cambridge, 2011) and
Greek History: The Basics (2014).
CAMBRIDGE CLASSICAL STUDIES
General editors
R. L. HUNTER, R. G. OSBORNE, M. J. MILLETT, G. BETEGH,
G. C. HORROCKS, S. P. OAKLEY, W. M. BEARD,
T. J. G. WHITMARSH
THEOLOGIES OF ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION
Edited by
ESTHER EIDINOW
University of Nottingham
JULIA KINDT
University of Sydney
ROBIN OSBORNE
University of Cambridge
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
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© Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge 2016
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permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2016
Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Eidinow, Esther, 1970– editor.
Title: Theologies of ancient Greek religion / edited by Esther Eidinow,
University of Nottingham, Julia Kindt, University of Sydney,
Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge.
Description: New York : Cambridge University Press, 2016. |
Series: Cambridge classical studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016011381 | ISBN 9781107153479 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Greece – Religion. | Theology.
Classification: LCC BL783.T44 2016 | DDC 292.20938–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016011381
ISBN 978-1-107-15347-9 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
CONTENTS
List of figures page ix
Notes on contributors xi
Preface xv
Note on spellings and abbreviations xvii
1 Introduction: what might we mean by the
theologies of ancient Greek religion? 1
ESTHER EIDINOW, JULIA KINDT, ROBIN OSBORNE AND
SHAUL TOR
2 The story of theology and the theology of the story 12
JULIA KINDT
3 Theologies of the family in Homer and Hesiod 35
BARBARA GRAZIOSI
4 Who’s afraid of Cypselus? Contested theologies
and dynastic dedications 62
RENAUD GAGNÉ
5 Heraclitus on Apollo’s signs and his own:
contemplating oracles and philosophical
inquiry 89
SHAUL TOR
6 The ‘theology’ of the Dionysia and Old Comedy 117
ERIC CSAPO
7 Polytheism and tragedy 153
SIMON GOLDHILL
8 Gods and men in ancient Greek conceptions of
lawgiving 176
HANNAH WILLEY
vii
Contents
9 Popular theologies: the gift of divine envy 205
ESTHER EIDINOW
10 Sacrificial theologies 233
ROBIN OSBORNE
11 Theologies of statues in Classical Greek art 249
MILETTE GAIFMAN
12 The gods in the Athenian assembly 281
GUNTHER MARTIN
13 Plato and the secularisation of Greek theology 301
RICK BENITEZ
14 Providence and religion in Middle Platonism 317
GEORGE BOYS-STONES
15 Narratives of continuity and discontinuity 339
PETER VAN NUFFELEN
Bibliography 359
Index 403
viii
