Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical

In this book, Walter Burkert seeks to provide a comprehensive study in Greek religion during the Hellenic are. The work is monumental in its scope and content, and deserves a place in the library of anyone who needs to study such topics. In particular, I would recommend this text to people looking at comparative religion involving ancient Greece.There are a few points which are not mentioned in other reviews that I think are helpful to note.The first is that both the bibliography and the notes are extremely detailed (the notes section accounts for around 180 pages). This provides a serious student additional resources for studying any aspect covered in this book.The second is that the level of detail in areas such as festivals, animal sacrifice, groupings of gods, etc. is extremely high. This level of work allows a real reconstruction of the Greek worldview in relation to religious practice to be developed.All in all, an excellent work. Highly recommended.

This is a dense, dense book that assumes you know a decent amount about Ancient Greece. It goes very in-depth on all sorts of different aspects of it and also includes a lot of analysis and interpretation. When we think of "Greek religion" today we often picture some fantastic stories about a bunch of gods acting naughty. The author here works to describe it as much more than that, as a real concrete thing that defined social mores and united people in their day-to-day lives. I think he is largely successful. To understand the Greeks we must understand their religion, and I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to understand the Greeks. You can turn to virtually any random page and discover something new.

With all the texts dealing with the ancient world, Burkert's is right up there among the 'must read' list. Burkert offers a definitive review of Greek Religion from the time of the Minoans right up until the early phases of Roman influence. I particularly found the section on the gods (ch. 3) compelling and a foundation for further reading. After reading this text cover to cover I feel I have attained a solid grounding in the basics of how the Greeks worshiped and how the Romans adopted their deities into the Roman pantheon.

This book is great! If you are serious in learning how the ancient Greeks worshiped the gods, then I definitely recommend this book. This book is definitely a task to read, and can confuse you. Make sure you have the dedication to do look up words! I am rating it 4 stars. This book is definitely full of knowledge, and yet it's quite a task to read. For this reason I can't give it 5 stars.

Got this as a reference for a book I'm writing. In depth, well-written, excellent index. Matches related volumes then goes deeper. When an issue is unclear from the historical or archaeological record, the author will tell you what he thinks makes sense and why. I find his logic quite sound.

Great book, quickly shipped!

Wonderful detailed material from a master.

The only thing keeping me from giving this book a five-star review is that it is, essentially, a "text-book." It isn't very entertaining to read, but if you want a serious and accurate run-down of ancient Greek Religion then this is the book to buy.