S.'s The Gods of the Greeks first appeared as Die Götter der Griechen in 1969. By the time its fourth German edition was published in 1998, J. Zeyl had, in agreement with S., begun work on the English translation reviewed here ‘to present a coherent overview of each of the Olympian gods that would be accessible to students, lay readers, and scholars’ (Shapiro, p. xix). More precisely, the translation intends to ‘accompany a new generation of English-speaking students as they begin their studies of classical mythology and art’ (Shapiro, p. xvii). The volume is not, strictly speaking, about religion, but about what visual sources, when combined with perspectives offered in ancient literature (especially Homeric poetry), uncover concerning the nature of the gods and the Greeks’ relationship with them in the period from the Bronze Age to the end of the fifth century bce; its methodology, founded upon that of Carl Robert's Bild und Lied (1881), is to create a dialogue between text and image (Shapiro, p. xix). The translation consists of thirteen substantive chapters, including a previously unpublished one on Hestia, which focus upon the major deities of the Greek pantheon (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus and Hermes) to identify the deities’ characteristics and trace their development from the Mycenaean era.
The decision to translate a book originally published more than half a century ago naturally raises the question about its relevance today, especially to its primary audience of English-speaking students. F. Graf's foreword provides a partial answer, by locating Die Götter der Griechen and S.'s original aims within the tradition of European, and particularly German, scholarship on religion and mythology up until the second half of the twentieth century. It was not S.'s intention to overhaul theoretical approaches to Greek religion (Graf, p. x); S.'s ‘paradigm shift’ (as Graf calls it, p. xiv) was the emphasis she placed upon visual sources for understanding the nature of, and popular conceptions about, the Greek gods. As S. notes in the introduction, to visualise the gods of the ancient Greeks we need works of art to navigate and at times correct their rich literary representations; this approach is not to relegate perspectives offered in literature, but to use such evidence as a baseline for understanding ancient art (p. 3). As part of S.'s approach, understanding ancient art within its broader archaeological context is crucial: the location of the gods’ sanctuaries and the essence of their local worship in particular deepen our insight into their nature (Graf, pp. x–xi; S., p. 9).
S.'s emphasis on visual culture and its wider framing within the archaeology of cult sites are familiar themes in today's scholarship. Yet this methodology remains relevant, and, particularly for students, S.'s work will complement existing resources on Greek mythology (e.g. R.J. Lenardon, M. Morford and M. Sham, Classical Mythology [2018, 11th edn.]) through both its visual focus and its concern with accounting for the origins of the gods before the classical era. The English translation vividly captures S.'s lively engagement with the source material as do the 312 beautifully presented images integrated into discussion across the thirteen chapters. S. reveals how art and archaeology may both correct literary distortions of the gods (e.g. in the chapter on Hera, where the value of iconographical and archaeological evidence lies in emphasising the goddess’ associations with plains, livestock and seafaring at the expense of the traditional conception of her as the wife of Zeus) and bolster them further (e.g. in the chapter on Apollo, which discusses the common presentation of the wandering nature of the god in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the location of his cult sanctuaries in hard-to-reach places and in visual portrayals in Greek art: pp. 154–6). The stress on the importance of the gods’ origins is a reminder of how religious ideas may be shaped by cross-cultural interaction.
However, for a book aimed at an audience interested in art and mythology, it is a bit disappointing that the broader relationship between myth and religion is not given more explicit prominence (especially as Die Götter der Griechen was originally published at a time when S.'s contemporaries were reshaping the narrative of the myth-ritual association: see J.N. Bremmer, The World of Greek Religion and Mythology: Collected Essays II [2019], Chapter 24). While S. places great trust in literature, and particularly poetry, for ‘knowledge of the gods’ (p. 5), the issue of how far their mythic elements pertaining to a god's nature came to inform cult practice is not given great prominence. Likewise, at times S.'s confident handling of visual evidence leaves the reader wondering how straightforward it is to interpret a piece of ancient art: for example, her discussion of a limestone plaque of Pallas Athena from Mycenae of the thirteenth century bce presents an uncomplicated identification of its main features (p. 201), which contrasts with its extremely worn state of preservation presented in the plaque's image (fig. 172, p. 202).
But perhaps the biggest caveat is that the book was not updated to reflect scholarship published after 1998; as a result, discussion can feel outdated. Although Shapiro flags this point in the preface (p. xix), the English translation is misleading in places. For example, one reference to a scholar's ‘recent’ interpretation of the west pediment of Artemis’ sanctuary on Corfu (p. 192 with n. 88) refers to a publication now more than 50 years old, a point that only those eager enough to look at the endnotes will discover. Inevitably, the volume shows its age in its bibliographical engagement. A current student of ancient religion may, for example, find themselves wondering how S.'s work applies to more recent avenues of scholarly investigation, such as the concept of ‘belief’ and the ways in which religion might correspond with and cut across aspects of the polis. Of course, updating the bibliography of a book of this size would have been a huge task, but perhaps the editor might have considered including an afterword, setting out how S.'s approach to visual culture might be applied to trends emerging in twenty-first-century scholarship on ancient art, mythology and religion.
In spite of these reservations, S.'s championing of artistic material is by no means lost in today's visual world. Die Götter der Griechen was influential in terms of its rich engagement with material evidence and The Gods of the Greeks arguably remains the most detailed study of ancient art associated with the main deities of the Greek pantheon. The English translation will undoubtedly fulfil the author's and editor's aim of increasing accessibility of this work to students and the general public; the work is well presented with glossy images and is easily navigated by means of the helpful indexes. Used cautiously, this book will be a valuable resource for students with an interest in visual culture, religion and mythology; S.'s core message about the value of engaging with art and archaeology as a means of gauging the nature of the Greek gods remains important and deserves to live on for today's generation of students.
