Lecture Topics (tbc)

Term 1

Week1: Introduction - General Module Information and introduction; The problem of approaching Greek Religion

Week 2: Sources for Greek Religion; The Origins of Greek Religion

Week 3: The World is full of gods - Ancient Greek Polytheism and CSR (Cognitive Science of Religion)

Week 4: Influencing the gods (1) - Sacrifice and Dedications

Week 5: Influencing the gods (2) - Magic, curses, oaths, prayer

Week 6: Reading Week [no lecture]

Week 7: Consulting the gods (1) - Oracles and Divination

Week 8: Consulting the gods (2) - The Heroes and the Dead

Week 9: Religion and the realities of life (1) – Pollution

Week 10: Religion and the realities of life (2) - Birth, marriage, and maturation

 

Term 2

Week 1: Religion and the realities of life (3) – Health (healing sanctuaries) and Death

Week 2: Spheres of religion – Individual, Household, Polis, regional and PanHellenic religion

Week 3: Religious experts - Priests and other religious Personnel; Myth and Religion

Week 4: Greek Sanctuaries (1) - The experience of scared spaces

Week 5: Greek Sanctuaries (2) - Oracles and Athletes

Week 6: Reading Week [no lecture]

Week 7: Festivals (1) – Festivals – Panathenaia etc.

Week 8: Festivals (2) - Women’s festivals

Week 9: Mystery Cults - Mysteries of Eleusis; Kabeiroi at Thebes; Orphism, and Pythagorism

Week 10: Religious change and Religious diversity/atheism - Did the Greeks really believe this stuff?

 

Term 3

Week 1: Review of Evidence for Greek religion

Week 2: Revision

Week 3: Revision