Introducing New Gods: The Politics of Athenian Religion

by Robert Garland

The religious imagination of the Greeks, Robert Garland observes, was populated by divine beings whose goodwill could not be counted upon, and worshipers faced a heavy burden of choice among innumerable deities to whom they might offer their devotion. These deities―and Athenian polytheism itself―remained in constant flux as cults successively came into favor and waned. Examining the means through which the Athenians established and marketed cults, this handsomely illustrated book is the first to illuminate the full range of motives―political and economic, as well as spiritual―that prompted them to introduce new gods.

Genres: Religion

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Dr. Robert S.J. Garland is the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics at Colgate University. He earned his B.A. in Classics from Manchester University, his M.A. in Classics from McMaster University, and his Ph.D. in Ancient History from University College London.

A former Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the George Grote Ancient History Prize, Professor Garland has educated students and audiences at a variety of levels. In addition to teaching classics at Colgate University, he has taught English and Drama to secondary school students and lectured at universities throughout Britain as well as the British School of Archaeology in Athens.

Professor Garland is the author of numerous articles in both academic and popular journals and books capturing details of all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman life, including The Greek Way of Life: From Conception to Old Age; Introducing New Gods: The Politics of Athenian Religion; and Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. His expertise has been featured in The History Channel's "Last Stand of the 300," and he has repeatedly served as a consultant for educational film companies.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through a series of case studies, Robert Garland illustrates the ways that Athenian religion - with a focus on the period from the Persian wars until the death of Socrates - both intervened in, and was predicated by, military and state security concerns; foreign policy, national identity, and the legitimation of imperial ambitions; as well as the politics of class, genos, and metropolitan faction. Indeed, the case of Socrates is emblematic, as the laws deployed against the philosopher - the nature of the charges against whom Garland argues were not concerned with 'atheism' per se, but rather with transgressing norms of religious observance - reveal the deadly seriousness with which cultus and public order were entangled. The trial of Socrates, like other controversies of state religion explored throughout this book, was not a mere political expedient in the guise of defending piety, but the prosecution of a crime that was political precisely because it was the Demos that had arrogated to itself the authority to defend piety.