This handsome, well-produced volume reprints thirteen articles on the subject of Greek religion by the remarkable American scholar of the Classical world, J. (1924–2004). J.'s reputation, as one of the foremost figures in the fields of Greek epigraphy, archaeology, and economic and social history over a 50-year period surely justifies the production of a volume of essays selected from his voluminous bibliography (printed on pp. xxxii–xxxvi). Volumes of this kind are, however, liable to meet with some scepticism from purchasing librarians in this era of diminishing library budgets and online journal depositories. So how useful is the resulting book?

Although the pieces chosen are important in themselves, the volume principally collects articles which are not available online. In fact, of the thirteen essays, only two are from journals readily accessible online (one of these, in the International Journal of Hindu Studies, is likely enough to be overlooked by Classicists), while the others are drawn from a range of collective volumes and Festschriften. A number of the articles were updated by J. before his death, and while this mostly consists of the addition of references to subsequent bibliography in footnotes, there are other more substantive insertions as well (such as the discussion on p. 138). The articles presented here should thus become the authoritative versions for reference.

J. was not a writer of monographs and, although many of the individual chapters are important works in their own right, they do not amount to a cohesive study of Greek ‘Cults and Rites’. What this volume does do, however, is exemplify J.'s pioneering approach to Greek religion, taking as its starting point not theoretical models but concrete evidence, especially inscriptions and archaeological evidence (including information gleaned from experimental archaeology) as well as a nuanced reading of literary texts, to illuminate religious practices in their local contexts. The book is divided into four, fairly loose, sections (‘Gods and Heroes’, ‘Rites’, ‘Religion and Society’ and ‘Michael Jameson and the Study of Greek Religion’), each of which is preceded by a brief essay by one of the most prominent figures in the study of Greek religion – F. Graf, C. Faraone, R. Parker and J. Bremmer. Ostensibly, these introduce the different sections, highlighting both the strengths of the chapters in each section (and other related pieces not included here) and also points of disagreement or controversy, but in fact each is really a critical appreciation of J.'s contribution to the authors’ field. Although these contributions overlap significantly, they offer a valuable scholarly apparatus which will be of considerable assistance for students in particular in approaching these articles as well as the method and assumptions of which they are the product.

Some of the essays will inevitably be more consulted than others. Chapter 6, ‘Sacrifice before Battle’, and Chapter 8, ‘Theoxenia’ (the subject of J.'s unpublished thesis), remain the most important treatments of the rituals they discuss. Chapter 10, ‘Sacrifice and Animal Husbandry’, is absolutely foundational for the study of the interplay between sacrificial practices and the economic logics of the different forms and products of animal husbandry, including milk and wool. Chapter 11, ‘Religion in the Athenian Democracy’, is, as Parker states, ‘probably the best brief treatment of its subject that is available’, and it also happens to come closest to giving us J.'s take on polis religion, the most influential model for the study of ancient religion in recent years. Typically, J.'s response is nuanced: ‘Recognition of the central place public religion occupied for the Greeks is a necessary first step … [but] polis religion is not the whole story’ (pp. 234–5). Here, J. stresses the importance of recognising the role of non-citizen actors and communities in ordinary religious activity (including women, foreigners and slaves) as well as alternative structuring institutions, like the household, less visible in our evidence. As J. argues in relation to Athens, the fact that a polis could intervene in response to innovation at any of these levels did not mean that it saw all innovation as a threat or was adept at recognising innovation if it did (pp. 260–1).

The other chapters, directed at specific cults or questions, also repay close reading for the substantive contributions which they make to specific questions as well as illustrations of J.'s meticulous scholarly method. J. sheds light on such diverse topics as the repurposing of Echetlaus, an Athenian hero of the plough-handle (Chapter 1), the earliest article in the collection by nearly 30 years, and the sculptural programme of the parapet frieze of the temple to Athena Nike (Chapter 7). This sculpture, he convincingly argues, depicts Nike herself performing the pre-battle sacrifice on behalf of the Athenians under the gaze of Athena and, by telescoping preceding ritual and the subsequent outcome, acts as an assertion of the certainty of Athenian victory. A particular highlight is Chapter 2, J.'s reconstruction of the history of an ephebic institution at Mycenae, beginning from a very brief archaic inscription and tracing its probable history and connections with the hero Perseus through literary and epigraphic sources as well as iconographic comparanda all the way down to its apparent revival under Argive dominance during the Hellenistic period.

The articles have been freshly typeset for this volume, with the omission of the original page numbers. This decision is understandable, though it does make the volume somewhat less easy to use as a work of reference. However, given this omission, the fact that the section introductions use the old pagination for quotations and do not make cross references within the book is irritating to say the least. In the process of typesetting at least one error of substance has crept in: the caption for figure 2.6 (IG V.1.257 – a remarkable isopsephic verse inscription from Laconia, in which the letters in each line add up to 2,730), wrongly attributes this text to the fourth century b.c. rather than the second century a.d. The reproduction of the numerous figures is superb. The index is serviceable and the volume is preceded by an introduction by P. Cartledge which does a good job of placing J.'s work on Greek religion within the context of his wider interests in epigraphy, economic history, slavery and archaeological field survey (of which J. was a crucial pioneer).