Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF PLATES IN VOL. I
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I THE ANICONIC AGE
- CHAPTER II THE ICONIC AGE
- CHAPTER III CRONOS
- CHAPTER IV ZEUS
- CHAPTER V THE CULT-MONUMENTS OF ZEUS
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII HERA
- CHAPTER VIII THE CULT-MONUMENTS OF HERA
- CHAPTER IX IDEAL TYPES OF HERA
- CHAPTER X ATHENA
- CHAPTER XI MONUMENTS OF ATHENA-WORSHIP
- CHAPTER XII IDEAL TYPES OF ATHENA
- GEOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF ATHENA CULTS
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF PLATES IN VOL. I
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I THE ANICONIC AGE
- CHAPTER II THE ICONIC AGE
- CHAPTER III CRONOS
- CHAPTER IV ZEUS
- CHAPTER V THE CULT-MONUMENTS OF ZEUS
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII HERA
- CHAPTER VIII THE CULT-MONUMENTS OF HERA
- CHAPTER IX IDEAL TYPES OF HERA
- CHAPTER X ATHENA
- CHAPTER XI MONUMENTS OF ATHENA-WORSHIP
- CHAPTER XII IDEAL TYPES OF ATHENA
- GEOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF ATHENA CULTS
- Plate section
Summary
The history of Greek religion, so much neglected in our country, is often mistaken for a discussion concerning its origins. The main scope of the present work is not the question of origin, but a survey of the most important texts and monuments that express the actual religious conceptions of the various Greek communities at different historical epochs. Such a study evidently concerns the student of the literature no less than the student of the archaeology of Greece, although the subject has been hitherto approached rather from the archaeological side. The question of origins may be put aside, although it may be true that one does not fully and perfectly know the present character of a fact unless one also knows the embryology of it. Yet this dictum expresses more the ideal of knowledge than a practical method of working. In dealing with so complicated a phenomenon as the religion of a people, it is surely advisable to consider separately and first the actual facts, the actual beliefs in the age of which we have history, rather than the prehistoric germ from which they arose. Again, this is the only aspect of the problem that directly concerns the student of the Greek world pure and simple, for the other line of inquiry, touching the birth of the nation's religion, can never be followed out within the limits of that nation's literature and monuments.
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- The Cults of the Greek States , pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1896