"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).

Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. John Raffan is the author of Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, published by Wiley.

A Survey of Scholarship.

The Sources.

The Scope of the Study.

Part I: Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age.

2. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

3. Indo-European.

4. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion.

5. The Dark Ages and the Problem of Continuity.

Part II: Ritual and Sanctuary.

6. Working Sacred Things: Animal Sacrifice.

7. Gift Offerings and Libation.

8. Prayer.

9. Purification.

10. The Sanctuary.

11. Priests.

12. The Festival.

13. Ecstasy and Divination.

Part III: The Gods.

14. The Spell of Homer.

15. Individual Gods.

16. The Remainder of the Pantheon.

17. The Special Character of Greek Anthropomorphism.

Part IV: The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods.

18. Burial and the Cult of the Dead.

19. Afterlife Mythology.

20. Olympian and Chthonic.

21. The Heroes.

22. Figures Who Cross the Chthonic-Olympian Boundary.

Part V: Polis and Polytheism.

23. Thought Patterns in Greek Polytheism.

24. The Rhythm of the Festivals.

25. Social Functions of Cult.

26. Piety in the Mirror of Greek Language.

Part VI: Mysteries and Asceticism.

27. Mystery Sanctuaries.

28. Bacchica and Orphica.

29. Bios.

Part VII: Philosophical Religion.

30. The New Foundation: Being and the Divine.

31. The Crisis: Sophists and Atheists.

32. The Deliverance: Cosmic Religion and Metaphysics.

33. Philosophical Religion and Polis Religion: Plato's Laws.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index of Greek Words.

Index.