B., one of the leading scholars on the subject of Greek religion, has assembled 36 articles (1984–2017), updated and organised in 30 chapters (and an appendix) to the great benefit of readers. They are arranged in four sections, preceded by a preface and followed by a list of places of original publication (titled as acknowledgments) and an index.

Section 1, ‘Gods and Heroes’, starts with gods (Chapter 1), reviewing their Mycenaean prehistory and presenting the history of scholarship. B. offers correctives on the minimalisation of the gods by leading scholars. In Chapter 2 he examines Poseidon and convincingly argues for his decline from a Mycenaean primary deity to a marginal one. Chapter 3 offers a fine analysis of Dionysos’ epiphany, festivals, birth (a citation of V. Lambrinoudakis, Μηροτραφής [1971] is missed) and mother(s). Chapter 4 discusses Hephaistos, revealing him as a god of contradictions. The last chapter (Chapter 5) devoted to gods offers an invaluable overview of the Gold Leaves’ divinities. Besides prominent examples such as Kybele and Persephone, B. highlights less well-known deities (Euklês, Eubouleus, Brimo) related to the underworld. Chapter 6 smoothly shifts from gods to heroes and their cults. B. emphasises the distinction of hero-cults from tomb-cults, ancestor-cults and founder-cults, concluding that hero-cults emerged only in the late sixth century. He also rightly rejects D. Boedeker's claim that Simonides hinted that a hero-cult existed for the Plataian dead. Section 1 closes with (Chapter 7) an appropriate blending of gods and heroes, focusing on how statues were believed to (inter)act. The structure of the chapter would have benefited from a separate sub-chapter on the Archaic period, as B. rightly traces a change in the agency of statues at its end.

Although Section 2's title ‘Aspects of Greek Religion’ is broad, it is coherent, dealing with aspects on the ‘margins of polis religion’. In Chapter 8 B. challenges the view that the polis fully controlled religion, by focusing on seers, curse-tablets (interested readers should consult C.A. Faraone and I. Polinskaya [edd.], Curses in Context III [2022]), Orphism and mythography. He convincingly concludes that from the late fifth century onwards written texts had a huge impact on disseminating religion. Chapter 9 continues with seers, focusing on their evolution and status. B. persuasively demonstrates that democracy's development led to the seers’ waning. Chapter 10 is a commentary on the Getty Hexameters. B. concludes by dating the text between 420 and 409 bce, placing it in Selinus, attributing it to a polymath writer and showing its connection with magic. A polymath himself, B. uses every category of evidence available, with only a minor weakness on the zooarchaeological evidence: ‘Of all the Sicilian sanctuaries, only Selinus contains the bones of sheep and goats near the altars of Demeter’ (p. 171). Zooarchaeology's growth is more recent than almost every Sicilian sanctuary's excavation; moreover, some caprovine bones have been found in at least two other Demeter sanctuaries, in Agrigento (R. Miccichè, The Akragas Dialogue [2020], p. 256) and Syracuse (P. Villari, Anthropozoologica 11 [1989], 11). However, even without the osteoarchaeological argument, placing the text's origin in Selinus is plausible. Eschatology is the focus of the next two chapters. Chapter 11 highlights the difference between psychê and the modern concept of soul, and Chapter 12 focuses on aspects of Orphism on the afterlife, analysing the text of the Gold Leaves, also reviewing the chronology and the routes of the Egyptian influences. Chapter 13 offers a well-structured account of secrecy, showing that its importance lies in the loyalty earned. Chapter 14 deals with old women, a marginal category in Greek society, but one with more freedom (than young women) in daily life. Chapter 15 is devoted to maenadism. B. excels in showing the difference between myth and ritual. Systematically studying the multi-layered maenadic ritual, even using neurophysiological data, he concludes that their ‘function’ was to give women an opportunity for individual freedom. The section closes with a survey of Near-Eastern influences (Chapter 16). B. investigates the routes of transmission for myths, gods and rituals, exposing the complexity of the subject and their geographical/social spread.

Section 3 is devoted to sacrifice. B. wisely chooses to present an idealised/hypothetical animal sacrifice (Chapter 17), rather than trying to place it under norms, thus avoiding overgeneralisations. New research proves B. right in his anticipation of ‘surprising and new results’; two years after his pronouncement, there is now evidence of sphage (*sphag-) in Linear B tablets (V. Petrakis, in: Zoia [2021], pp. 343–72). There remain minor problems concerning the archaeological data used. The Kalapodi sanctuary, located in Phokis (not Boeotia), has proved to be the Apollo oracular sanctuary of Abai (S. Prignitz, ZPE 189 [2014]). On the concealment of the sacrificial knife, B. accepts W. Burkert's deeply consolidated views on the obfuscation of guilt and challenges S. Peirce, arguing that her evidence of the Busiris episode is weak, as it involves a ‘perverted’ sacrifice. But knives do appear in processions of normative sacrifices on at least eleven vases (M. Petrakis, Μάχαιρα [2020], pp. 414–23). Moreover, Flavius Philostratus’ statement (8.7.440–3) οὐδ’ ἂν εὐξαίμην ἐς μάχαιραν βλέπων ἢ θυσίαν implies that the knife was the centre of attention during prayer, and so visible. On obeloi (p. 318 n. 71) a citation of P. Haarer's thesis (Ὀβελοί and Iron in Archaic Greece [2000]) would have been more useful than that given. Last, on fish-bones, although B. cites D. Mylona's study, he does not include Poseidon in the gods who received fish-sacrifices. Overall, we still lack sufficient data to draw general conclusions on fish-bones: the wide use of floatation on excavations is too recent. The second chapter on animal sacrifice (Chapter 18) offers an engaging insight into the sacrifice of pregnant animals.

Human sacrifice is tackled in the next four chapters. In Chapter 19 B. explores the link between myth and ritual, through three different cases; the first invokes the execution of a Rhodian death-row inmate; the second is the sacrifice of Polyxena. B. states that it ‘closely follows that of normal animal sacrifice’ (p. 357), which is generally true, though he misses one deviation. The sacrificial instrument here is a sword, as in sphagia, another aspect of battlefield sacrifice. B. is aware of this detail, as he elaborates on it in Chapter 21 (p. 398). The third case, between myth and ritual, reviews the infamous human sacrifices on Mount Lykaion. Regarding the epithet Lykaios (pp. 358, 368), I missed a citation of O. Zolotnikova (Zeus [2013], p. 105), following A.B. Cook, who derives it from the ‘Indo-European root *leukh-/*lukh- to shine’. On the excavations’ history (p. 358 n. 69), the Hesperia papers (2014, 2015) are absent. The ash-altar is older than 600 bce (B. used the old excavation information of K. Kourouniotes): it goes back to Mycenaean times. ‘Construct’ is unsuited to describe the ash-altar's development, as it grew gradually from repeated ash-creating events. On the contrary, B. is fully cognisant of the notorious skeleton there (p. 370 n. 139, through personal communication): this is of great importance, being the first time we are officially informed that it is not ancient. This is not mentioned in D.G. Romano's 2019 study (Natur – Mythos – Religion im antiken Griechenland, p. 226 n. 20) nor in the Hesperia 2021 paper, where there is no reference to the skeleton (awaiting the anthropological analysis publication). Accordingly, B.'s update is hugely important for the topic. The rest of the Section (Chapters 20–2) provides an excellent overview of Iphigeneia's sacrifice, cult and Euripides’ adaptations. B. (as usual) pays special attention to the terminology, especially the difference between thyein and sphazein (‘sacrificing’ and ‘slaughtering’). Chapter 22 touches on various related subjects, i.e. the attempt of Orestes’ sacrifice, Greek-barbarian human sacrifice, the establishment of an Artemis-Tauropolos cult (a reference to K. Kalogeropoulos's sophisticated book, Τὸ Ἱερὸ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος Ταυροπόλου [2013], pp. 59–138, is needed) and women conducting sacrifices. On the last, B. notes knives present in female cult personnel's graves (p. 407 n. 24). Indeed, we have knives from female graves, but can we be sure that these women were priestesses?

The book closes with Section 4, on Mythology. The introductory Chapter 23 addresses questions on Greek myth identity. Chapter 24 extensively reviews scholarly history on myth-ritual relationships, concluding that each case must be dealt with individually. Chapter 25 looks at the different versions of Cyrene's foundation, documenting the myth-history interweaving. Chapter 26 explores the use of myths in propaganda by scrutinising the myths of Ion and the Heraclids. In Chapter 27 B. offers an admirable overview of a Hellenistic inscription from Halicarnassus, which ‘stands in the tradition of local history’ (p. 489). Alongside Crete, Halicarnassus and Sardis, Arcadia too claimed Zeus's autochthony, as attested by Callimachus and Pausanias. B. mentions Callimachus, but passes over his version of Zeus's birthplace (this does not affect B.'s point on Cretan influence, as he presents a plethora of well-structured arguments). A note explaining that Chrysaor was Pegasus’ brother would be useful (as he notes that Leukippos is Bellerophontes’ descendant on p. 486). Chapter 28 shows that myth was not an important part of the novel until the Roman period. Chapter 29 reviews myths on personifications, through another successfully chosen example, the Horai, minor divinities who personify the Seasons. The last chapter (30) presents the scholarly history on myth, closing with important conclusions on the study of Greek mythology and on the relation between myth and ritual.

I found only a few minor misprints. As the book uses iconography as evidence, it would have profited from some figurative-vases illustrations (Chapters 5, 7, 8, 11, 15, 17, 27), and a map would have been helpful for Chapter 25.

I have emphasised points of disagreement, but this is a book of great value for the study of Greek religion. Most chapters are of outstanding quality and characterised by B.'s sound methodology (reviewing previous scholarship, paying meticulous attention to the vocabulary and the historical context, and drawing upon a wide range of evidence) and obvious command of the philological and epigraphical evidence, accompanied by the utilisation of archaeological and iconographical data. The selection of papers for this well-structured and coherent volume is apt; most chapters benefit from their co-existence in the same volume, and the transition from one to another is smooth. The (multilingual) bibliographical updating is amazingly exhaustive, no less than 600 entries have been added. Given that ‘every new excavation presents surprising and new results’ (p. 309), one realises the significance of these updated papers. B. has also critically considered previous reviews, for example he has corrected a translation (p. 341) concerning G. Ekroth's review (Kernos 20 [2007], 390 n. 13); he has elaborated on non-normative sacrifice (pp. 320–3), as J. Mylonopoulos suggested (Kernos 21 [2008], 321). Equally, he quite rightly omitted the less useful discussion in the original version of Chapter 18. The book excels in illuminating key issues in the study of Greek (polis and especially ‘unlicensed’) religion and mythology. It is deservedly of great interest to students and scholars of Greek religion and the ancient world in general.