1Recent scholarship in the field of Classics is definitely dominated by companions, introductions, as well as Einführungen to literally almost everything, and it is legitimate to ask how necessary they really are, whether they add new insights to our knowledge, or do they simply represent the product of a new scholarly fast-food-era? It should be stressed from the very beginning that this new companion certainly does not belong to the last category, for the sheer “collection” of renowned contributors guarantees the highest standards. Nevertheless, already in his introductory note, the editor reveals the book’s most important weakness: although we may or may not agree – and I definitely disagree – upon the chronological framework (776-30 BCE), the idea of a companion conceived not based on the topic itself, but rather on “subjects and issues generally held to be of importance and interest by contemporary international experts in the field of Greek religion” seems quite paradoxical; after all, this is meant to be a companion to Greek religion, and not a companion to the contemporary Forschungsgeschichte of Greek religion. Notwithstanding this perhaps all too critical remark, every single contributor delivers what his/her reputation promises: cogitative, although not always new, appetizers for students of Greek religion to further continue their exploration of this fascinating field.

3K. Dowden begins his contribution on Olympian Gods, Olympian Pantheon with a brief but invaluable distinction among the different semantic levels of cult, mythology, and thought / “theology”. The A. stresses the important difference between “pantheon” and the notion of “twelveness” in Greek religion, although he does not adequately emphasises the importance of local traditions. The example of the six double altars at Olympia is not only an illuminating case for the notion of twelve gods, as noted by Dowden, but also an important piece of evidence for the existence of local concepts of the twelve gods. Dowden chooses to exemplify his views about Greek gods by using Apollon and Artemis as cases in point. The Letoids are indeed two of the most interesting and puzzling divine figures, but a brief explanation of the reasons for this seemingly arbitrary choice would certainly have been very useful.

4In her A Land Full of Gods: Nature Deities in Greek Religion, J. Larson presents no panorama of such divinities closely connected with nature. Instead she concentrates on the Nymphs, Pan, the river gods, Gaia, Helios, Poseidon and his thiasos – in this context, Larson’s assumption that Amphitrite was venerated together with Poseidon at Pente­skouphia appears too confident, since Athena too appears on the votive pinakes from the site, – as well as the Winds. One may ask why Demeter is so prominently absent from Larson’s account, but her contribution is nevertheless very well structured and informative, especially in the part dedicated to the Nymphs.

6In The Dead, D. Felton offers an appealing insight in both ancient Greek ritual practices connected with and the mythology of death. The author briefly summarises festivals related to the dead such as the Genesia and the Anthesteria, the nature of deities and mythological figures traditionally associated with death (Hades, Persephone, Thanatos, Charon, Hermes Psychopompos), heroic katabaseis, the ritual practice of necromancy, and stories about ghosts. Minor problems concern exclusively the archaeological data used: lamentation scenes occur on Athenian Geometric vases of the eighth and not of the ninth century BCE, while the cemetery in the Athenian Agora was abandoned after the enlargement of the latter, thus, the Agora was not simultaneously used as a meeting place and a cemetery as stated by Felton.

7Making ample use of the literary and especially of the epigraphic evidence, G. Ekroth offers in her Heroes and Hero-Cults a sophisticated overview on Greek hero-cults, the importance of heroes and heroines in the panthea of Greek cities, the enormous formal variability of their respective cult places, and the sacrificial rituals related to them. The author explicitly refers to the ambiguous, and thus problematic Greek terminology for addressing heroic figures and the rituals connected with them. One could disagree with the interpretation of the so-called Polis cave on Ithaca as a heroon of Odysseus or with Ekroth’s positive evaluation of the inflated use of the term hero on Hellenistic tombstones, but these admittedly are negligible points of criticism.

8In his Prayers and Hymns, W.D. Furley discusses the ritual frame and the rhetoric of prayers and hymns, before addressing their different types. He underlines that singing and further musical features are indeed formal attributes that distinguish the more performative hymns from prayers. Furley rightly stresses that the elaborate naming in the beginning of prayers and hymns is not only aiming at the greater glory of the gods, as noticed by S. Pulleyn, but serves also the identification of the right gods as addressees of the respective prayers and hymns.

9In his Greek Normative Animal Sacrifice, J.N. Bremmer offers an account of the typical Greek blood sacrifice and its different parts: the choice of the correct animal, the treatment of the sacrificial victim, the procession, the ritual acts immediately before the killing, and the actual killing of the animal. Unfortunately, Bremmer decides to consider the sacrificial meal in just four lines, thus, neglecting the importance of this last part of a Greek sacrifice. In two further sections, the author discusses briefly the emic and etic perspectives on sacrifice, concentrating mainly on the epic tradition and the scholarly works of K. Meuli, W. Burkert, and J.-P. Vernant respectively. It would have been probably more fascinating if Bremmer would have chosen to present some of the innumerable “exceptions” from his normative animal sacrifice: the sphagion, or the sacrifices of birds, dogs, and even horses.

12A. Bendlin discusses in his Purity and Pollution one of the most important aspects of Greek religion and as a matter of fact of social life in general: the notion and concept of purity and its endangerment by death, childbirth, sexual intercourse and so on. Although Bendlin is absolutely right in stressing that the opposite of purity is certainly not pollution, I feel quite uncomfortable with his use of terms such as “normality” or “normal life” for describing the situation in-between. There are also brief, but quite informative references to religious authorities and purificatory ritual acts that could help in expelling pollution.

13S. Scullion’s contribution on Festivals is perhaps the perfect demonstration that the small number of pages has nothing to do with the quality and density of an analysis delivered. Instead of the impossible task of an overview, Scullion simply focuses on three festivals using them as examples that help understand the scarcity of our evidence (Diasia), the preconceptions of modern scholarship (Karneia), and the value of ancient sources in understanding structure and function of festivals (Oschophoria). In my view, the analysis of the Athenian Oschophoria constitutes a tour de force in cautious examination and evaluation of all relevant material for a plausible interpretation of a specific festival, even if I disagree with Scullion’s outlook on the role of Dionysos in this festival. His guide of further reading is up to date and above all refreshing: Scullion refers not only to English but also to French and German publications that go beyond W. Burkert’s and J.-P. Vernant’s standard studies.

14One needs more than skill in order to adequately deal with such a complicated topic like time, one needs charisma. Readers should, thus, thank the editor of the volume for entrusting Time and Greek Religion in J. Davidson’s hands. Davidson offers an imaginative, well-structured, and intriguing account of the importance of time in and for Greek religion. He makes the apparently impossible possible, for he elegantly demonstrates that time is so much more than calendars and month names. He describes three types of time, which should not be conceived as distinct temporal entities, but as interwoven layers. For example, the yearly addition of ash on the altar of Zeus at Olympia creates a visual monument of the accumulative aspects of time, the entire ritual past of the sanctuary concentrated on its central altar. However, the ritual itself is a repetitive act with a climactic structure (collecting for a year the ashes, the bones, and the burnt offerings, mixing them at a specific temporal point with water from the Alpheios, and applying them to the great altar): a “continual movement while standing still”.

15Although Deacy’s contribution bears the title “Famous Athens, Divine Polis”: The Religious System at Athens, the A. almost exclusively focuses on Athena offering brief accounts of two of Athena’s most important myths (Erichthonios’ birth, the goddesses’ quarrel with Poseidon over the Attic land), and the Panathenaea. In a separate section, Deacy discusses the return of Peisistratos to Athens as well as the mutilation of the herms and the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries in 415 BCE.

17After a brief consideration of the sources about religion in Alexandria, F. Dunand presents in her The Religious System at Alexandria concise separate accounts on divinities worshipped in one of the most important cities of the Hellenistic world: Demeter, Dionysos, Aphrodite, Isis, and Sarapis. She also discusses aspects of the dynastic cult and its religious significance. Most welcome, but unfortunately far too short is her presentation of the Jewish and Christian communities of Alexandria. However, despite the obvious profundity of the contribution, the fragmentation in the presentation of the evidence and the absence of a conclusive section hinder the development of a more synthetic view of the Alexandrine religious system.

19After a general theoretical introduction to the interrelation between religion and society, Ch.W. Hendrick Jr. offers in his Religion and Society in Classical Greece an overview of the Athenian political organisation and concentrates on the bipolar system polis/chora that he characterises perhaps all too critically as “a threat to the unity of the state”. Civic religion as manifested in festivals like the Panathenaea or the Thesmophoria and initiation rituals constitutes a further point of focus in Hendrick’s account.

20In her Women, Religion, and the Home, J. Morgan focuses on a crucial aspect of the polyvalent interconnections between religion and the female Lebenswelt: the religious activities tightly connected with the house. After a brief overview on the social status of women in Athens, Morgan analyses the real spaces of female religious action within the house such as the roof in the context of the Adonia or the hearth. She goes on to intriguingly address the female body both as creator of religious boundaries and medium for trespassing them. Under this topic, the A. also discusses the female presence in festivals for Demeter and Dionysos. Morgan’s account is exceptionally compelling, for she goes far beyond the simple analysis of women’s roles as priestesses, dedicators, or participants in cult activities.

23In his The Mysteries of Demeter and Kore, K. Clinton offers a summary of his innumerable authoritative publications on the mysteries of the Two Goddesses celebrated at Eleusis. Based primarily on his own interpretation of the iconographical evidence provided by the Lakrateides relief in Eleusis, the Ninnion tablet in Athens, and the so-called regina vasorum in St. Petersburg, Clinton reconstructs a possible outline of the mythological background as well as the ritual and performative aspects of the mysteries.

24After rightly stressing the fact that a consideration of ancient magic should always be a part of a companion to Greek religion, M.W. Dickie discusses in his Magic in Classical and Hellenistic Greece the overwhelmingly negative image of magicians in literary sources. The treatise On the sacred disease is one of the main texts used by the A. In a further step, Dickie demonstrates that the principal activity of magicians was not just the casting of spells: magicians were involved in meteorological magic, in healing and prevention of sicknesses, in different forms of divination, and in performing various kinds of illusionist tricks. Dickie very briefly deals with the identity of the persons who performed magic and the ways they were treated by the law.

25In his Greek Religion and Literature, Th. Harrison makes a strong case for the consideration of the entire Greek literary production in the study of religion and at the same time he intriguingly points at the various methodological problems connected with the different literary forms. While the A. is not denying the importance of ritual studies, he nevertheless stresses that literature offers an invaluable insight in religious thought that constitutes an important parameter in understanding human experience: Harrison demonstrates this by using as an example the belief in divine retribution recorded by several authors. It is worth noticing that the author insightfully argues against several axioms that dominate the study of Greek religion (ritual vs. dogma, the significance of the sacred texts’ absence, the communal character of religion, and the usual interpretations of ancient criticism towards religion).

26Notwithstanding brief references to the Presocratics and Aristoteles, F.-G. Herrmann exclusively discusses in his captivating paper on Greek Religion and Philosophy: The God of the Philosopher the Platonic “theology” as demonstrated in the Dialogues. Dualities and alleged antitheses such as pious-impious, bad-good, beautiful-ugly, and archè-telos, but also the teleological and demonological aspects of Plato’s philosophy are seen in the more concrete framework of religious attitude and thought. The Platonic concept of “god” is also briefly considered in respect to its reception in and impact on Christian theology. The Platonic focus constitutes the only disadvantage of Herrmann’s account, for the title promises a more general consideration of the interplay between religion and philosophy.

28In the final paper under the title Gods of the Silver Screen: Cinematic Representations of Myth and Divinity, L. Llewellyn-Jones focuses on Jason and the Argonauts (released in 1963 and not in 1960 as stated by the author) and Clash of the Titans (released in 1981) and their percep­tion, representation and re-interpretation of the Homeric pantheon. Several aspects of the divine such as anthropomorphism, moral ambiguity, or epiphanic communication with the human sphere are addressed both in respect to their cinematic and Homeric concepts. I think it is legitimate to ask why the perception of ancient Greek mythology had to be limited to cinematic representations. Other media like the tragedies of Jean Racine, the paintings of Pietro da Cortona, Giambattista Pittoni, or Giambattista Tiepolo, and operas by Claudio Monteverdi, Christoph Willibald Gluck, George Enescu, or Mikis Theodorakis would have been equally or even more interesting and fruitful.

29D. Ogden’s Companion to Greek Religion offers indeed a useful overview of what is happening scholarly in the study of Greek religion, but neglects, nevertheless, some aspects that ought to have been included. Contributions on topics such Greek religion under the Romans, the introduction or even creation of new gods, cult statues and their significance, religious authority and especially priests, or the so-called religious “outsiders” would have certainly enriched this otherwise excellent volume. The majority of the papers are of outstanding quality, but the bibliographical references tend to create the false impression that the study of Greek religion is about to become a monolingual discipline. Despite these points of criticism, this companion will certainly constitute a valuable instrument for both students and scholars of Greek religion.