In this book, K. questions the usefulness of universalising models, particularly the ‘polis’ model that has dominated studies of Greek societies, including religion, for the past 40 years. Since these models link the polis with autonomy, the polis model focuses only on Archaic and Classical cities before the conquests of Philip of Macedon. She aims to extend the dialogue to include ‘aspects of the religious that cannot be explained by the model of polis religion’ (p. 6) through a synthesis of prevailing models, consideration of their limitations and identification of productive ways forward.
In Chapter 1, ‘Beyond the Polis: Rethinking Greek Religion’, K. systematically scrutinises the model of polis religion as encapsulated in the work of C. Sourvinou-Inwood, in which the polis is considered to structure and authorise religion (‘What is Polis Religion?’ and ‘Further Aspects of Polis Religion’ reprinted in R. Buxton [ed.] Oxford Readings in Greek Religion [2000], pp. 13–55). K. skilfully outlines various shades of the polis religion model and the question of agency, which she views as prejudicial. She points to several aspects of Greek religion that cannot be contained within this model: the role of individuals, groups associated with non-Olympian gods, sanctuaries outside poleis or managed by multiple poleis. Her concern is to emphasise changes over time, particularly the development of sanctuaries and the expansion of local cults beyond their original home, and interactions motivated by personal interest, a sphere she often associates with the concept of religious belief. Individuals approached the oracle at Dodona with questions regarding their personal lives; ‘marginal’ religious groups were not outside the polis and often included wealthy people among their members. These potential counter-examples to the polis religion model are developed more fully in subsequent chapters and form the backbone of the book. She adopts a concept of ‘thin coherence’, originally borrowed from social anthropology by J. Ober, to emphasise diversity as an essential component of religion. K. is concerned that viewing Greek religion as the instrument of the polis skews interpretations towards a narrative of consistency that does not reflect the extensive variety of Greek polytheism.
Chapter 2, ‘Parmeniscus’ Journey: Tracing Religious Visuality in Word and Wood' takes the anecdote of Parmeniscus recorded in Athenaeus (14.614a–b) as an example of the ambiguity that characterises human belief in gods. Gods must be unknowable, but subject to representation in a variety of forms. Parmeniscus is able to understand the oracular response given to him at Delphi by experiencing a different medium of human/divine interaction, ‘religious viewing’, in a different sanctuary. K. adapts ‘religious viewing’ from the work of J. Elsner (Art and the Roman Viewer [1995] et al.) to exemplify the range of modes of religious experience in antiquity. The anecdote of Parmeniscus' laughter at the aniconic statue of Leto on Delos illustrates the cognitive dimension of religion as the mental framework through which individuals perceive and, ultimately, understand divine power. For K., an individual's experience of several sanctuaries and their unique methods of communicating divinity is a further rejoinder to the ‘polis religion’ model.
In Chapter 3, ‘On Tyrant Property Turned Ritual Object: Political Power and Sacred Symbols in Ancient Greece and Social Anthropology’, K. surveys the definition of religion in the semiotic studies of anthropologist Clifford Geertz, highlighting his contribution to twentieth-century scholarship in a range of disciplines before focusing on two specific examples of religious symbols from ancient Greece, votives and processions. She aims to ‘develop an alternative model of religious signification’ (p. 64) as a way of diminishing the hierarchy of functionalism in scholarship on the subject which, picking up on earlier chapters, she finds to be encapsulated in the polis religion model. K. focuses on an earlier study by J. Gould (‘Making Sense of Greek Religion’, in Myth, Ritual, Memory and Exchange: Essays in Greek Literature and Culture [2001], pp. 203–34) as an overly-determined use of Geertz's dichotomy of symbolism and social institutions. She offers a brief analysis of the testimony that property belonging to the Thirty tyrants was melted down and reused to make sacrificial implements for processions. The link between votives and processions is an interesting twist: votives were normally confined within the temples to which processions led and, drawing on the discussion of religious visuality in Chapter 2, her sketch of the spatial dimensions of Greek religion could be profitably expanded.
The most often cited criticism of the polis religion model is its marginalisation of activities associated with individual practitioners, secret groups or those actions performed by individuals for ‘private’ reasons, such as women seeking help with childbirth. The question of ‘private’ is the focus of Chapter 4, ‘Rethinking Religious Boundaries: the Place of Magic in the Religious Culture of Ancient Greece’. K. does well to draw attention to the confinement of models such as polis religion and the way evidence extraneous to the model is categorised as such, rather than prompting scholars to evaluate or expand the model. K. strives to work with a more inclusive model of religion without recourse to a dichotomy between the religious activities sanctioned by the polis and those utilised by individuals in ‘private’. Using an example from Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, K. equates reactions to marvellous occurrences to magic as an example of the synthesis between natural occurrence and response. K. proposes a ‘symbolic universe of Greek religion’ (p. 113) that unites all communications with gods, without compartmentalising spheres of interaction at source but rather through perspective. The concepts of marginal and central come from the perspective of the polis, which used such categories to affirm the primacy of their own discourse.
Chapter 5, ‘The “Local” and the “Universal” Reconsidered: Olympia, Dedications and the Religious Culture of Ancient Greece’ continues to probe this distinction but on the larger level of ‘local’ and ‘panhellenic’ within the polis religion model through a glance at inscribed dedications at Olympia. She rightly attempts to correct the lack of attention to dedications outside archaeology (p. 125), although how her discussion relates to Sourvinou-Inwood's detailed and complex conceptualisation of ‘local’ and ‘panhellenic’ is not fully realised. She sows some of the seeds here for the discussion in Chapter 6, ‘“The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic”: Seeing, Touching and Knowing the Divine during the Second Sophistic’, of statuary as one of the most important expressions of Greek religious belief, and the process of questioning inherent therein. This chapter is sophisticated and engaging, using some extant descriptions of agalmatophilia ‘statue love’ in ps.-Lucian, Philostratus and Clement of Alexandria to build upon J.-P. Vernant's ‘problem of the divine body’ (Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays [1991], p. 47). K. proposes a ‘theology’ of Greek religion in which speculation ‘evolved in a narrative and episodic form and was descriptive rather than prescriptive’ (p. 193). The book ends with a conclusion, restating her main points before ending with an exhortation towards interdisciplinary studies as a way forward.
K. has pulled together some interesting examples of Greek religious practices and beliefs from a variety of sources and perspectives. The book is well written, highly polished and well-suited for a relatively inexperienced audience, who will particularly benefit from her consistent attempt to adapt earlier scholarship with different evidence in new ways. She aims for the big picture through consideration of very different types of evidence, but largely manages to avoid the disjointed impression this might have on readers less familiar with the state of play in Greek religious studies. However, for those with significant interests and experience in the subject, these studies may come across as overly simplified and repetitive (e.g. the summary of Gould's theory on pp. 70 and 77), due to a relatively superficial and selective engagement with some key theories rather than a consistent or penetrating analysis. She sets out to expand the polis religion model, a focus she finds to be ‘excessively narrow’ (p. 6). In comparison with the dense, detailed studies of Sourvinou-Inwood which cemented this ‘model’ in Greek religious studies, K. deliberately paints with a broad brush to open new avenues of enquiry, but as a result lacks the persuasive force of Sourvinou-Inwood's expansive and deep understanding of the specific context (Classical Athens) for which she developed the ‘polis religion model’.
