(Carl Newell Jackson Lectures) ,Walter Burkert. Harvard, 1987. Soft cover, 181pp. 12 illustrations.
The foremost historian of Greek religion provides the first comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This book is neither a history nor a survey but a comparative phenomenology, concentrating on five major cults. In defining the mysteries and describing their rituals, membership, organization, and dissemination, Walter Burkert displays the remarkable erudition we have come to expect of him; he also shows great sensitivity and sympathy in interpreting the experiences and motivations of the devotees.
This is possibly the only book that treats the Mithras cult soberly – “The scarcity of literary references to the mysteries of Mithras is strange” when compared to the archeo evidence. “Mithraea usually were quite small, holding about 20 persons … this makes a good team, but not a mass religion.” “Ancient mystery cults did not form religious communities…” strange even among the pagan religions that no women were allowed … “Ekklesia indicates quite a different level of involvement …”
Review: https://www.jstor.org/stable/295287?seq=1
Plastic overlay on cover is peeling, usual underlying and side notes up to page 91.
€10.
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