The place of religion in the Bosporan Kingdom is a subject that has received little attention from European and Anglophone academics, certainly in comparison to Russian and Ukrainian scholarship. In the volume under review, B. attempts to remedy this imbalance by offering a new nexus for understanding religion as a unifying force in the Bosporan state. His focus is a quartet of female deities: Crimean Parthenos, Artemis of Ephesos, Isis and Aphrodite Ourania. It is argued that through mythology, ritual and cult these goddesses became important vessels for implementing cohesive social strategies aimed at superseding the social and spatial divisions presented by the Kingdom's ethno-cultural diversity and fractured geography (pp. 13–14).

Chapter 1 argues that the cults of Crimean Parthenos at Porthmium and Achilles on the Taman peninsula linked the two halves of the Bosporan Kingdom through the metaphor of Iphigenia and Achilles’ abortive nuptials (p. 41). Allusions to an earlier mythology linking Parthenos with the same Bosporan crossing are likewise perceived in late antique sources (pp. 23–6). Yet, equating Parthenos and Iphigenia depends heavily on Herodotus’ claim that the Taurians associated their own goddess with Iphigenia (Hdt. 4.103.2). The reliability of this assertion is accepted as ‘the identification is so unusual’ (p. 33), though it is ‘unclear where … he [Herodotus] had gained that information’ (p. 32). There is also the suggestion that the route between the Aegean and the city of Chersonesus linked Parthenos–Iphigenia and Achilles via the island of Leuke (p. 58). B. omits to mention that sources for the Achilles cult on Leuke, with the exception of Antoninus Liberalis (Met. 27), tend to cast Helen as his post-mortem bride (e.g. Paus. 3.19.13; Philostr. Her. 54.3). Nevertheless, B. identifies numerous aspects of Parthenos’ role as a cohesive force, while acknowledging the obvious limitations of the source material, though he is understandably unable to offer definitive proof of the claim.

The discussion in Chapter 2, focusing on instantiations of Parthenos outside the Crimea, is based on far more secure evidence. It outlines how Iphigenia and Orestes’ flight from the Taurians with the xoanan of Parthenos played an important part in conceptions of the goddess in the wider Mediterranean world (p. 61). B. vividly establishes a connection between bloodletting rituals and the conception of Taurian savagery, including the whipping of Spartan youths (p. 74) and the bloodletting ritual at Halae Araphenides in Attica (p. 73). While the xoanan’s ‘bloodlust’ was key to their institution, Greeks could simultaneously portray themselves as civilising by offering blood as a proxy for human sacrifice (p. 63). This chapter also argues that Parthenos in the Bosporan Kingdom and Chersonesus was more saviour than sanguinary and that etic conceptions of the goddess were acceptable as they gave the Bosporan Kingdom an important role in a wider Greek mythscape (pp. 92–3).

The following chapter discusses evidence for the worship of Artemis of Ephesos in the Bosporan Kingdom. B. correctly sees no need to posit Ephesian colonisation due to the cult's importance for the Ionians who did settle there (p. 117). A curious facet of her worship is the clustering of evidence in the late fourth century bce (p. 105), and B.’s explanation for this phenomenon deserves note for both its ingenuity and its fascinating implications. The increased visibility of dedications is placed in the context of the destruction and rebuilding of the Artemision at Ephesos around 356 bce (p. 127). We do not naturally think of the positive effect of destructive events, by contrast the ruin of Apollo's temple at Didyma left the site derelict for almost two centuries; yet B. shows that we should be alive to the varied far-reaching consequences of such events.

Chapter 4 draws attention to Isis and Io in the Bosporus, the latter being firmly linked with the ruling dynasty in an inscription linking the Bosporan ruler Cotys I to the Inachid family of Io (p. 158). B. also analyses the ‘ISIS’ trireme graffitied onto the wall of Aphrodite's sanctuary at Nymphaeum (pp. 160–77), which is convincingly linked to the Ploiaphesia festival and the opening of the sailing season (p. 167). Despite Isis’ limited function in the religious landscape of the Bosporan Kingdom (p. 185), this case study provides a nuanced example of how religion could operate at a geo-political level; Isis and the Inachids provided a common point of reference in which dialogue could be undertaken between the Bosporans and Ptolemies (pp. 184–5).

The final case study addresses arguably the most important (and certainly most debated) goddess of the Bosporan Kingdom, Aphrodite Ourania. It focuses on the aetiology of her cult place at Apatouron, and its links to the Gigantomachy and connection to deception (apatê) (pp. 234–42). This story is located both in individual performance contexts and embedded into fundamental features of the local landscape (pp. 207–20). The latter is, in my view, a most important contribution to the discussion of Aphrodite Ourania. The capacity of landscape to structure and accommodate mythology is key to understanding the interaction of myth and religion, and how fantastical narratives could be accepted seemingly tout court. B. rightly stresses the suitability of a Panhellenic narrative such as the Gigantomachy, which provided fertile ground for connecting the local landscape of the Bosporan kingdom with the wider Greek mythscape (pp. 216–17).

B. sums up by returning to the central roles of Crimean Parthenos and Aphrodite Ourania, the former representing the European side of the straits and the latter the Asian, in providing a unifying social and political nexus in the Bosporan Kingdom. By way of epilogue he brings together these axial deities, along with Demeter, Kore and Herakles, in his discussion of the iconography of Tomb 1 at Bol'shaya Bliznitsa (pp. 265–75). The choice of this example is apt; the tomb's visual narratives place a particular emphasis on female virtue, fertility and immortality. These important social concerns were mediated principally by Aphrodite Ourania and Crimean Parthenos, who each had a fundamental role in binding the social, cultural, political and geographic fabric of the Kingdom as a whole (pp. 271–2).

This volume is a welcome addition to the small number of studies on the Bosporan Kingdom in western European languages; indeed one hopes it may provide new impetus to the study of this region on its own terms rather than as a peripheral theatre of action for Rome, Athens and other imperial powers. Furthermore, the temptation to be hypercritical of a small number of B.’s interpretations should be set alongside the recognition that any attempt to study this material and ask the kinds of questions B. asks must inevitably entail some speculation. B. willingly acknowledges as much. Accepting this caveat, the overall aims of the book are met. We are certainly offered much that is new, with a handful of conclusions challenging existing consensuses, particularly in relation to interfaces between mythology, religion and society in ethnically plural areas. An unfortunate omission, given the laudable intention to bring to the fore some of the vast Russophone scholarship that exists on the topic (pp. xiiiff.), is the absence of a list of abbreviations. While some are self-evident, others such as ‘RA’ (Rossiyskaya Arkheologiya) and ‘KSIA’ (Kratkie Soobshcheniya Instituta Arkheolgii an SSSR) may be unfamiliar to the non-specialist. Otherwise the volume is well produced with few errors. The book is to be recommended particularly to scholars and graduate students interested in both the Bosporan Kingdom and the wider role of religion and mythology in the ancient world.