The main textbooks for this class provide a good, general introduction
to the basics of religion in the Greek and Roman worlds. However,
if you would like to get additional perspectives (after all, each textbook
can give you just one perspective), or if you want an idea of how contemporary
scholarship views the religious traditions of the classical world, you
might want to read some of the following. All are introductory (for
abbreviations, see above):
| Beard, Mary, "Religion", CAH,
v.9, Ch.19, 1994, pp. 729-768. |
|
Description:
The definitive expression of the current British approach to ancient
religion. |
| Mikalson, Jon, "Religion in the Attic Demes", American
Journal of Philology 98 (1977) 424-435. |
|
Description:
The best short introduction to religion and politics in classical Greece.
Location:
P1 A5 |
| Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane, "What is Polis Religion?"
in Murray and Price, eds., The Greek City, 1990. |
|
Description:
Argues that "the polis provided the fundamental framework in which
Greek religion operated, that the polis anchored and legitimated, and mediated,
all religious activity."
Location:
DF82 G74 1990 |
| Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane, "Further Aspects of Polis
Religion", Annali Istituto Orientale de Napoli: Archaeologia e
Storia Antica 10 (1988). |
|
Description:
Continuation of "What is Polis Religion?"
Location:
Penn doesn't subscribe to this journal, so I have left a copy in the
reserve room. |
| Ventris, Michael and John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean
Greek, 2nd ed., Cambridge UP 1973. |
|
Description:
Written by the decipherers of Linear B, gives texts and translations
of the major Greek documents from the Bronze Age. See ch.9
for religious texts.
Location:
University Museum Library
P1035 V4 1973 |
| Palmer, L.R., The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek
Texts, Oxford UP 1963 (Sandpiper Books edition 1998). |
|
Description:
Provides alternative readings to Ventris and Chadwick. See ch.6
for religious texts.
Location:
487.8 P183 |
|