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University of California Press

Homo Necans

The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth
by Walter Burkert (Author), Peter Bing (Translator)
Paperback
Price: $36.95 / £31.00
Publication Date: Nov 1986
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9780520058750
Trim Size: 6 x 9
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About the Book

Blood sacrifice, the ritual slaughter of animals, has been basic to religion through history, so that it survives in spiritualized form even in Christianity. How did this violent phenomenon achieve the status of the sacred? This question is examined in Walter Burkert's famous study.

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface
Preface to the English Edition
List of Illustrations
Introduction

I. Sacrifice, Hunting, and Funerary Rituals
II. Werewolves around the Tripod Kettle
III. Dissolution and New Year's Festival
IV. Anthesteria
V. Eleusis

Abbreviations and Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"A milestone, not only in the field of classics but in the wider field of the history of religion. . . . It will find a place alongside the works of Jane Ellen Harrison, Sir James George Frazer, Claude Levi-Strauss, and van Gennep."—Wendy Flaherty, Divinity School, University of Chicago

"This book is a professional classic, an absolute must for any serious student of Greek religion."—Albert Henrichs, Harvard University

Awards

  • 1992 Ingersoll Prize in the Richard M. Weaver Award for Scholarly Letters category 1992, Rockford Institute