What Parker does that is new is to give us a broad picture of religious practices and outlook ... in a single city-state. This ambitious self-limitation permits a developmental account that is refreshingly embedded both in the underlying social framework and in historical narrative. Accordingly, he largely leaves aside the themes usually handled by books on Greek religion. Epigraphists will enjoy seeing their patient reconstructive work rescued from the brilliant obscurity of learned journals to be incorporated into this masterly synthesis. It is an extraordinary achievement to have made the assembling of fragmentary and often unexciting evidence of various kinds, with all the necessary qualification and counter-qualification, so absorbingly readable. Parker excels in elegant caution.

What Parker does that is new is to give us a broad picture of religious practices and outlook ... in a single city-state. This ambitious self-limitation permits a developmental account that is refreshingly embedded both in the underlying social framework and in historical narrative. Accordingly, he largely leaves aside the themes usually handled by books on Greek religion. Epigraphists will enjoy seeing their patient reconstructive work rescued from the brilliant obscurity of learned journals to be incorporated into this masterly synthesis. It is an extraordinary achievement to have made the assembling of fragmentary and often unexciting evidence of various kinds, with all the necessary qualification and counter-qualification, so absorbingly readable. Parker excels in elegant caution.

What Parker does that is new is to give us a broad picture of religious practices and outlook ... in a single city-state. This ambitious self-limitation permits a developmental account that is refreshingly embedded both in the underlying social framework and in historical narrative. Accordingly, he largely leaves aside the themes usually handled by books on Greek religion. Epigraphists will enjoy seeing their patient reconstructive work rescued from the brilliant obscurity of learned journals to be incorporated into this masterly synthesis. It is an extraordinary achievement to have made the assembling of fragmentary and often unexciting evidence of various kinds, with all the necessary qualification and counter-qualification, so absorbingly readable. Parker excels in elegant caution.