Ancient Mystery Cults
by Walter Burkert
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Description
The foremost historian of Greek religion provides the first comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This book is neither a history nor a survey but a comparative phenomenology concentrating on five major cults. In defining the mysteries and describing their rituals, membership, organization, and show more dissemination, Walter Burkert displays the remarkable erudition we have come to expect of him; he also shows sensitivity and sympathy in interpreting the experiences and motivations of the devotees. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A superb book, as long as it is taken for what it is: a series of erudite lectures, barely touching the depths of the subjects. I felt comfortable reading it, as I had solid background knowledge from elsewhere, yet I enriched myself with these erudite flakes and minutes to a satisfying degree. Highly commendable for the cognoscendi, to gather new tasty bits of variete not to be found elsewhere. Highly commendable to the amateurs - to develop a love for mysteries starting from this short survey.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Burkert is great, but this was too short, basic for my tastes.
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Author Information
27+ Works 2,389 Members
German-born scholar Walter Burkert currently teaches at the University of Zurich. He is the leading active scholar of the religion of early and classical Greece. Burkert's work proceeds through intense, meticulous historical and philological investigation, seeking to understand Greek religion in and of itself. His studies wed philology and history show more with methods drawn from anthropology and resemble the work of Jonathan Z. Smith. But, unlike Smith, who seems to rule out diachronic considerations categorically in favor of synchronic taxonomies or analogical comparisons, Burkert remains interested in questions of long-term historical evolution and cross-cultural influence. Burkert gives particular attention to psychological causation and the biological roots of human behavior as revealed by the science of ethology. For example, his study of Greek sacrifice, Homo necans, roots the practice of sacrifice in the biological necessity faced by prehistoric hunting groups that killed to survive. Burkert suggests that this necessary, aggressive behavior gave rise to anxiety, but through the practice of sacrifice the unavoidable aggression, which otherwise threatened to destroy society, was redirected to its promotion instead. In Structure and History Burkert's theoretical concerns are larger, including both myth and ritual. The precise relation between myth and ritual has been a vexing question for scholars of ancient religions; Burkert places them side by side and links them at a structural level. He thinks ritual is older than myth, because it is a form of behavior found even in animals. Nevertheless, ritual and myth share several important features: Both depend upon basic biological or cultural programs of action and detachment from pragmatic reality. Both serve communication. Because myth and ritual are related in this way, it is possible for them to be found together. Burkert's Greek Religion is the current, standard handbook on the religions of ancient Greece. His most recent work has been devoted to examining the influence of the ancient Near East on archaic Greek civilization. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Carl Newell Jackson Lectures (1982 Lecture)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Ancient Mystery Cults
- Original title
- Ancient Mystery Cults
- Original publication date
- 1987
- Dedication
- To Zeph Stewart
- First words
- The word mysteries conveys the fascination of secrecy and the promise of thrilling revelations.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 425
- Popularity
- 72,929
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.96)
- Languages
- 10 — English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 17
- ASINs
- 1
