Judaism in Palestine in the Hellenistic-Roman Periods

This chapter talks about the religions of the Archaic and Classical period. Most of the divine names that have emerged from the Mycenaean palace sites are similar to those of the main deities known to all later Greeks through the epic and early hexameter Homer and Hesiod, whom Herodotus perceived to be crucial in crystallizing the forms of the gods of the Greeks. The chapter considers the conceptions of the gods and of their relations with human beings that accompany worship. The concept of orthopraxy explains a great deal about Greek religion, but it should not be taken to mean that beliefs and viewpoints are unimportant, or that they have no connection with the cult that is offered to the gods. Theophrastos's dictum seems to describe Greek practice well. The chapter deals with a very diverse body of ritual. Many belong in the category of official, regularly recurring ceremonies, whereas others seem to have been performed in accordance with demand.