The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations

Scholars and others will hugely welcome the reappearance, now in its paperback form, of the fifth in the invaluable series of Edinburgh Leventis Studies. The renascence of theoretically sophisticated research into the often desperately foreign world of ancient Greek polytheism is perfectly captured by this deeply learned, far-shooting and richly various collection. Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge The Greek gods are still very much present in modern consciousness. Yet even though Apollo and Dionysos, Artemis and Aphrodite, Zeus and Hermes are household names, it is much less clear what these divinities meant and stood for in ancient Greece. In fact, they have been very much neglected in modern scholarship. This book brings together a team of international scholars with the aim of remedying this situation and generating new approaches to the nature and development of the Greek gods in the period from Homer until Late Antiquity. It looks at individual gods, but also asks to what extent cult, myth and literary genre determine the nature of a divinity. And how do the Greek gods function in a polytheistic pantheon and what is their connection to the heroes? What is the influence of philosophy? What does archaeology tell us about the gods? In what way do the gods in Late Antiquity differ from those in classical Greece? The aim of the book is to present a comprehensive view of the gods as they functioned in Greek culture until the triumph of Christianity. It will have a broad appeal within Classics and Religious Studies. Jan N. Bremmer is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Andrew Erskine is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh.