EARLY GREEK CULT PRACTICE Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium At the Swedish Institute At Athens, 26-29, June, 1986

Minor creasing to spine. Light shelfwear. ; Skrifter Utgivna Av Svenska Institutet I Athen / Acta Instituti Atheniensis Regni Sueciae, Series in 4°, XXXVIII; 303 pages; The purpose of the Fifth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, the papers and discussions of which are contained in this volume, was to initiate a discussion of the various phenomena characteristic of Greek cult practice of the pre-Hellenistic periods, ranging from sacrifice and libations to the handling of cult images and the placing of votive gifts in a sanctuary. It was planned as a cross-discipline symposium so as to allow the problems to be addressed by scholars from diverging points of view, by diverse methods and on the basis of the available evidence, be it archaeological, architectural, iconographical, literary or epigraphical. We also invited an anthropologist, Professor W. Arens, of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, in order to put Greek cult practice in the more general perspective of cultural anthropology. These efforts notwithstanding, it proved impossible to even touch upon all relevant aspects of the topic within the limited time of three days of sessions (and a one day field-trip). The result was a concentration of papers and discussions on a few central phenomena, such as animal sacrifice, votive offerings and ritual meals, and a number of single contributions dealing with a wide range of other aspects. It is our hope that the proceedings will inspire further research in this fascinating field. Robin Hägg