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This module is not currently running in 2023 to 2024.
This module is an introduction to ancient Greek ritual and religion, including the Mystery cults. The module offers a comprehensive introduction to the major gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, spheres of influence, characters, relationships, exploits, and worship. It is concerned with the analysis of religious festivals, cults, beliefs, and the development of religious architecture. The module additionally briefly contrasts Greek religion to Christianity, as an example of investigating how Greek religion differs from, and resembles modern religions. The materials of the module are drawn from archaeology, Greek poets, artists, playwrights, mythographers, and philosophers from the 10th–2nd centuries BC.
Total Contact Hours: 40
Private Study Hours: 260
Total Study Hours: 300
Autumn or Spring
Presentation (20 minutes) – 20%
Essay (3,000 words) – 80%
Indicative Reading List
Alcock, S. and Osborne, R. (eds) (1999). Placing the Gods. Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Antonaccio, C.M. (1995). An Archaeology of Ancestors: Tomb, Cult and Hero Cult in Early Greece. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Burkert, W. (1983). Homo Necans. The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Burkert, W. (1985). Greek Religion. Archaic and Classical. Oxford: Blackwell/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cole, S.G. (2004). Landscapes, Gender and Ritual Space. The Ancient Greek Experience. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Easterling, P.E. and Muir, J.V. (1985). Greek Religion and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the archaeology and the historical sources on ancient Greek cults from the 10th–2nd centuries BC;
2. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the development of Greek religious architecture in relation to the needs of religious rites and cult practices;
3. Demonstrate systematic understanding when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the archaeological evidence and historical sources dealing with religious practice
and cult for the periods covered;
4. Demonstrate independent learning skills and discuss with confidence aspects of ancient Greek religion, beliefs of the cosmos and the divine;
5. Using established techniques, accurately identify artistic representations of the major gods, goddesses, and heroes of ancient Greece, their spheres of influence, character,
relationships, exploits, and worship.
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