IV. Ritual

Abstract

When Herodotus describes the religion of non-Greek people, he mainly concentrates on their ritual. Consequently, it seems a reasonable conclusion that he, and presumably also his fellow Greeks, understood the significance of religion largely in ritual terms. Although recent scholarship has paid much attention to belief (Chapter I), there can be little doubt that ritual constitutes the heart of ancient Greek religion. Accordingly, Burkert began his analysis of classical Greek religion with a chapter called ‘Ritual and Sanctuary’. However, as the content of the term is not self-evident, I will start this chapter with some introductory observations on the use of the term and on the possibilities for studying ancient ritual (§1). Subsequently I will analyse important ritual acts, such as prayer, procession, and, in particular, sacrifice (§2). I conclude with a discussion of various larger ritual complexes (§3).