Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion

Jane Ellen Harrison

Cambridge University Press, Jun 24, 2010 - History - 604 pages

Drawing upon a range of disciplines including anthropology, classical studies, archaeology and psychology, Jane Ellen Harrison's seminal 1912 work Themis pieces together the origins of early Greek religion. Known as one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Harrison has been described by her biographer, Mary Beard, as 'Britain's first female professional 'career academic'. She is renowned as being one of the most intellectual women of her time, and the ideas espoused on Greek rituals and myths in Themis remain influential today. This revolutionary study traces Themis back through history, as a matriarchal tribal goddess. Addressing areas including magic, sacrifice and the origin of the Olympic games, Harrison applies archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of Greek religion. Including a detailed preface and explanatory notes, this revised second edition of 1927 is described by Harrison as 'addressed not so much to the specialist as to the thinker generally'.

Contents

• CHAPTER I: 1
• to the Kouretes Its importance for the history of religion Analysis: 28
• Idaean ritual later in character than Diktaean Epimenidea as the new: 50
• CHAPTER IV: 75
• 6 MedicineBird and MedicineKing: 94
• sacramental feast Nature of sacrament best understood in the light: 118
• CHAPTER VI: 124
• The Dithyramb the Spring Festival and the Hagia Triada: 158
• de passage from sex to sex and age to age symbolized by interchange: 196
• funeral theory Relation to HeroWorship Pindars account in first: 212
• CHAPTER VIII: 260
• elements are an Agon a Pathos a Messenger a Threnos an Anagnorisis: 341
• CHAPTER IX: 364
• Herakles as fertility and yeardaimonas Hertnas Thallophoros: 375
• Herois Heroines as fertilitydaimones The Bringing up of Semele: 444
• are honours claimed not functions performed They claim immortalityand: 445
• CHAPTER XL: 480
• religion Social structure of the Olympians is patriarchal and of the family: 492
• Index 537559: 537

About the author

One of the first women to study classics at Cambridge University, Jane Harrison enjoyed a global reputation based on her writings about Greek religion. At a time when the study of texts was often seen as the only means to study ancient religions, Harrison helped break new ground by using materials and insights derived from archaeology, art history, and comparative anthropology. In Harrison's view, religion is primarily something done; words and reflection come later. In writing on Greek religion, she made a sharp distinction between the cult of the Olympian deities, which she initially devalued, and non-Olympian practices. She correlated this distinction with one between rituals of tendence and rituals of aversion, that is, rituals that venerate and those that seek to ward off potentially evil spirits. In accordance with views popular at the time, she also gave her classification an evolutionary twist, attributing the Olympian cult to invading Indo-European patriarchs from the north, and the non-Olympian practices to a matriarchal, pre-Indo-European, Mediterranean civilization. Readers should approach Harrison's entirely speculative, historical reconstruction with extreme caution. As is true for virtually every scholar of Harrison's generation, the value of her writing consists in the potential elucidation that her questions and categories can provide, not in the results of her actual investigations. Together with James G. Frazer and the so-called Cambridge Ritualists, Harrison has recently been the object of intense biographical scrutiny.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion; Cambridge Library Collection - Classics
• Author: Jane Ellen Harrison
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010
• ISBN: 1108009492, 9781108009492
• Length: 604 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / General