Ancient Greek Religion Research Articles

Coscinomancy in Theocritus and Kazantzakis

idea that modern Greece can have any teaching to impart concerning the beliefs of more than two thousand years ago seems seldom to have been entertained. These words, written by J. C. Lawson at the beginning of his pioneering study Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge 1910; reprinted 1964) over half a century ago now, may have lost a large measure of their validity in the wake of recent studies in social anthropology. Even so, the ancient world still contains some dark corners which the customs of modern Greece may legitimately be called in to illuminate. One such dark corner is the main subject of this short paper. It may best be introduced by a short passage from the third idyll of Theocritus. Here, by a typical Hellenistic inversion of the norm, the ????? is taken out of its customary urban setting and transposed into the open countryside. The comast serenades his lovely Amaryllis before her cave, but in vain. His love is unrequited, as Agroeo, the local fortune-teller, has told him :

Persephone. Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia (review)

Book Reviews Persephone. Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia. By Giinther Zuntz. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1971. Pp. xiii + 425, mad 30 Plates. $29) This is a full-length archaeological, philological, and interpretative study of the development and .universalization of the goddess Persephone by the Western Greeks in contact with the cults of the ancient Sicilians, and in relation to Aphrodite and Demeter. The discussion covers among other subjects the originality of the Lokrian contribution to this development, and the place of Malta in the cults of Magua Graecia. Part II consists of a rehabilitation of the fragments of Empedocles' Katharmoi and its Hesiodic message of the sacredness of human life, with some attempt to relate this work to Empedocles' own physics, as well as to Pindar, Pythagoras and Plato. Part III tentatively re-interprets the so-called "Orphic Gold Leaves" kept in the Museums of Naples and London, and relates them both to Pythagorean belief and practice and to Persephone and the afterlife. One consequence of this study worth mentioning to the student of philosophy, is that the editions of these fragments found in H. Diels, O. Kern, and even Olivieri are to be used only with care and scepticism in a philosophical consideration of this component of ancient Greek religion. This student now has something more usable and definitive in Zuntz's edition of, and commentary on, the text of both the Empedoclean Katharmoi and the Gold Leaves fragments. V. TEJ~RA SUNY at Stony Brook Dialog und Dialektik: zur Struktur des platonischen Dialogs. By Hermann Gundert. (Amsterdam: Verlag B. R. Griiner, 1971. Pp. 166. DFL 35) This is the initial volume of a new series of publications devoted to classical philology and philosophy as cooperative methods of research. Here Hermann Gundert presents in book form, with some re-editing, his systematic examination of the dialectical structure of sixteen of the major dialogues which lend themselves to such analysis; of special significance is the detailed analysis of The Republic. (These researches had been published in 1968 in Studium Generale by Springer, Heidelberg.) Here are brought together with great precision and detail the results not only of his own studies but also of the studies of many other scholars who have recognized the value of Plato's Dialogues as classics of dialectical art. His list (pp. 160-161) of the major contributions that have been made in this field since Schleiermacher first called attention to it is indeed impressive; it might well have included the very recent works of Randall and Ryle. With great skill Gundert shows the development of the art by Plato from the early "Socratic" dialogues, through the elaboration of the Phaedo and the Republic among the "middle" dialogues, to the culmination of dialectic as the fundamental method of knowledge in the Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. There is fortunately no attempt to interpret the Symposium as a dialectic structure, but there is a reference to Diotima's "ladder of love" as a dialectical progression. However, neither Diotima nor Socrates presents this "ladder" as anything but the "mystery" of the discipline of love as it strives toward pure beauty. But if such an ascent of Platonic love is interpreted also as the dialectical ascent of philosophy to [540] ...

White Dozens and Bad Sociology

I. tale was first printed in Richard M. Dorson, Collecting Folklore in Jonesport, Maine, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, CI (x957), 287. 2. Dorson cites Irwin T. Sanders, Rainbow in the Rock: People of Rural Greece (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), as the source for this statement. Although Sanders does not state how he gained possession of this information, the story as attributed to Saint Nicholas is quite common in Greece. 3. Most writers on Greek folk religion suggest direct transference from Helios to Saint Elias. See, for instance, John C. Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1910), 44; and Mary Hamilton, The Pagan Element in the Names of Annual of the British School at Athens, XIII (1906-1907), 348-356. For one of the few opposing views, see Hippolyte Delehaye, Legends of the Saints, tr. Donald Attwater (London, 1962), 135-136. 4. translation, from Polites' Paradhoseis, I, No. 208, is given in Mary Hamilton's Greek Saints and Their Festivals (I9Io), 23 n. I.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals

Ancient Greek Religion. By H. J. Rose. Pp. 160. London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1948. 7s. 6d.

Ancient Greek Religion. By H. J. Rose. Pp. 160. London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1948. 7<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>.

Book Reviews

THE WHITE GODDESS. By ROBERT GRAVES. London, Faber and Faber, 1948. Pp. 430. Price 30s Reviewed by Raglan. CIVILISATION TRADITIONELLE ET GENRES DE VIE. ANDRE VARAGNAC. Albin Michel, Paris, 1948. Reviewed by V.A.. THE CELTIC AND SCANDINAVIAN RELIGIONS. J. A. MACCULLOCH, D.D. Hutchinson's University Library. 7s. 6d. net. Reviewed by Lewis Spence. ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION. By H. J. ROSE, F.B.A. Hutchinson's University Library. London. 1946. Pp. 160. Price 7s. 6d. Reviewed by John L. Myres. THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGION. By PROFESSOR E. O. JAMES, D.Litt., D.D. (Hutchinson's University Library: 1948, London, pp. 159. 7s. 6d. net.) Reviewed by J. A. Macculloch.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion. John Cuthbert Lawson

Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsModern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion. John Cuthbert Lawson Clifford H. MooreClifford H. Moore Search for more articles by this author PDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Classical Philology Volume 7, Number 1Jan., 1912 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/359627 Views: 42 Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: III. Abteilung., Byzantinische Zeitschrift 21, no.22 (Jan 1912).https://doi.org/10.1515/byzs.1912.21.2.552

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals

Preface 1. Introductory 2. The survival of pagan deities 3. The communion of gods and men 4. The relation of soul and body 5. Cremation and inhumation 6. The benefit of dissolution 7. The union of gods and men General index Index of Greek words and phrases.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion - Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals. By John Cuthbert Lawson, M.A. 8VO. Pp. xii + 620. Cambridge: At the University Press. 1910.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion - Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals. By John Cuthbert Lawson, M.A. 8VO. Pp. xii + 620. Cambridge: At the University Press. 1910. - Volume 24 Issue 6

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, a Study in Survivals. By John Cuthbert Lawson, M.A. Pp. xii + 620. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1910. 12s.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, a Study in Survivals. By John Cuthbert Lawson, M.A. Pp. xii + 620. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1910. 12<i>s</i>.