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Greek Personal Religion: A Reader
The relationship between the individual and the divine in ancient Greece is a complex one, which has tended to be neglected in favour of studies of state religion, festivals, sanctuaries and oracles.
120 pages, Paperback
First published May 25, 2009
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October 20, 2014
The premise of this slim volume is simple: There's not enough study being done of the way that the ancient Greeks interacted with the Gods on a personal level. Plenty of research has been done, plenty of books written, about the civic religion of ancient Greece if you know where to look. There hasn't been as much of a survey of how the Greeks related to their gods individually. It isn't that the source material isn't there, Instone points out. It's just that people aren't really focusing on it. Hence, this book, a presentation of fifteen selected texts examining just that. This is not, and does not pretend to be, an in-depth or comprehensive study of the subject; it's more of a sampling, intended to give a taste of the material and perhaps give direction for further investigation.
There is a short introduction, giving a quick overview of the texts to be addressed and the purpose of the book. Then the texts themselves are presented, each with an introduction, a brief bibliography, an English translation, and finally notes. (The untranslated Greek texts are available in the back.) Instone's writing is informal enough to be engaging while still retaining sufficient authority to be convincing. The translations I think are also primarily by Instone, or at least no other translator is credited in most cases; at times I found them to be a bit on the colloquial side for my taste, but overall they were quite clear and readable.
This is an excellent book for a reader who is interested in exploring ancient Greek writings, but needs some help interpreting the primary sources. It covers a broad range of the familiar (Homer, Plato, Aristotle) and the less-well-known (Theophrastus, Empedocles). Instone's introductions set up the context of each passage well, and his notes help twenty-first century readers successfully navigate the language of more than two millennia past. He is careful to note any place where translation, interpretation, or even the original text is unclear. His interpretation and conclusions seem reasonable, and he draws upon well-established sources such as Burkert and Garland to lend support.
Not only the writing, but also the format make this a good introductory read. The selections range in length from a single page to twelve pages long, introductions and notes included; the average is about five pages. This makes for relatively easy reading even if you (like me) find scholarly writing and primary sources difficult to wade through, since each short section can be read and digested individually before moving on to the next. I hope to find more books laid out in similar manner in the future, as I found this much easier to wrap my brain around and move through in a timely manner than other scholarly or primary sources I have tackled.
If I have one complaint about the book, it is that sometimes the connection to the purported topic seems a little bit tenuous. I fully believe that it's there, but don't feel that Instone was clear enough in explaining how some of his selected texts illustrate the relationship between individuals and their Gods. Some passages seem more like history lessons or overviews of how some groups in or around Greece perceived the Gods. However, these are still instructive and well worth reading even if they seem a bit off-topic, and the book as a whole is certainly still something I would recommend to those interested in the subject matter.
There is a short introduction, giving a quick overview of the texts to be addressed and the purpose of the book. Then the texts themselves are presented, each with an introduction, a brief bibliography, an English translation, and finally notes. (The untranslated Greek texts are available in the back.) Instone's writing is informal enough to be engaging while still retaining sufficient authority to be convincing. The translations I think are also primarily by Instone, or at least no other translator is credited in most cases; at times I found them to be a bit on the colloquial side for my taste, but overall they were quite clear and readable.
This is an excellent book for a reader who is interested in exploring ancient Greek writings, but needs some help interpreting the primary sources. It covers a broad range of the familiar (Homer, Plato, Aristotle) and the less-well-known (Theophrastus, Empedocles). Instone's introductions set up the context of each passage well, and his notes help twenty-first century readers successfully navigate the language of more than two millennia past. He is careful to note any place where translation, interpretation, or even the original text is unclear. His interpretation and conclusions seem reasonable, and he draws upon well-established sources such as Burkert and Garland to lend support.
Not only the writing, but also the format make this a good introductory read. The selections range in length from a single page to twelve pages long, introductions and notes included; the average is about five pages. This makes for relatively easy reading even if you (like me) find scholarly writing and primary sources difficult to wade through, since each short section can be read and digested individually before moving on to the next. I hope to find more books laid out in similar manner in the future, as I found this much easier to wrap my brain around and move through in a timely manner than other scholarly or primary sources I have tackled.
If I have one complaint about the book, it is that sometimes the connection to the purported topic seems a little bit tenuous. I fully believe that it's there, but don't feel that Instone was clear enough in explaining how some of his selected texts illustrate the relationship between individuals and their Gods. Some passages seem more like history lessons or overviews of how some groups in or around Greece perceived the Gods. However, these are still instructive and well worth reading even if they seem a bit off-topic, and the book as a whole is certainly still something I would recommend to those interested in the subject matter.
Displaying 1 of 1 review