The Local Horizon of Ancient Greek Religion
Julia Kindt editor Hans Beck editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:13th Apr '23
Should be back in stock very soon
Explores the many ways in which ancient Greek religious beliefs and practices operated in their various local contexts.
Addresses all those interested in the manifold links between ancient Greek religion and society. Illustrates what can be gained from paying careful attention to the various ways in which ancient Greek religious beliefs and practices were encoded in and in communication with their various local environments.Which dimensions of the religious experience of the ancient Greeks become tangible only if we foreground its local horizons? This book explores the manifold ways in which Greek religious beliefs and practices are encoded in and communicate with various local environments. Its individual chapters explore 'the local' in its different forms and formulations. Besides the polis perspective, they include numerous other places and locations above and below the polis-level as well as those fully or largely independent of the city-state. Overall, the local emerges as a relational concept that changes together with our understanding of the general or universal forces as they shape ancient Greek religion. The unity and diversity of ancient Greek religion becomes tangible in the manifold ways in which localizing and generalizing forces interact with each other at different times and in different places across the ancient Greek world.
'… one of the strengths of this impressive volume is its emphasis on the diversity of ancient Greek religious belief, practice, and experience. The volume certainly accomplishes its stated goals, set out in its brief preface, of elevating 'the local' to an ontological domain of meaning, illustrating the various ways in which religion is embedded in environment, and teasing out complex interplay between the local and general spheres. The emergence of 'the local' as a relational concept ensures its wide-ranging utility and establishes it as a productive approach in the study of Greek religion.' Ranjani Atur, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
ISBN: 9781009301848
Dimensions: 249mm x 174mm x 28mm
Weight: 860g
415 pages