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. This reader presents a selection of texts that shed light on many potential aspects of an individual’s personal religious beliefs and influences including divine epiphany, superstition, epilepsy, athletics victories, life after death, philosophy, pollution, Orphism and curse tablets. The Greek authors include Homer, Hesiod, Theophrastus, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Pindar, Empedocles, Plato and Aristotle as well as a Hippocratic text, orphic gold leaves, and fragments of the Derveni Papyrus. Each text has an introduction explaining the background and significance of the passage, an English translation and commentaries. The Greek texts are given in a separate section at the end of the book.