Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth

Walter Burkert

University of California Press, 1983 - History - 334 pages

"A milestone, not only in the field of classics but in the wider field of the history of religion. . . . It will find a place alongside the works of Jane Ellen Harrison, Sir James George Frazer, Claude Levi-Strauss, and van Gennep."—Wendy Flaherty, Divinity School, University of Chicago

"This book is a professional classic, an absolute must for any serious student of Greek religion."—Albert Henrichs, Harvard University

Contents

• I: xix
• II: 1
• III: 12
• IV: 22
• V: 29
• VI: 35
• VII: 48
• VIII: 58
• IX: 72
• X: 83
• XI: 84
• XII: 93
• XIII: 103
• XIV: 109
• XV: 116
• XVI: 130
• XVII: 135
• XVIII: 136
• XIX: 161
• XX: 168
• XXI: 179
• XXII: 185
• XXIII: 190
• XXIV: 196
• XXV: 204
• XXVI: 213
• XXVII: 216
• XXVIII: 226
• XXIX: 230
• XXX: 238
• XXXI: 243
• XXXII: 248
• XXXIII: 256
• XXXIV: 265
• XXXV: 274
• XXXVI: 293

About the author

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 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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth; Volume 384 of Campus (Berkeley)
• Author: Walter Burkert
• Translated by: Peter Bing
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of California Press, 1983
• ISBN: 0520058755, 9780520058750
• Length: 334 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / General; Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology