Reading List

There are many ancient sources, scholarly works, videos, and other mediums that help one study the ancient Hellenes, their Gods and their religion. On this page, you will find my ongoing process--in cooperation with Hellenistic religious organization Elaion--to provide you with a comprehensive reading list to get you started on your own practice.

Recommended reading:

• Hesiod - Theogony
• Hesiod - Works and Days
• Hómēros - Homeric Hymns
• Hómēros - The Iliad
• Hómēros - The Odyssey
• Orphic Hymns
• Bruit Zaidman, Louise & Schmitt Pantel, Pauline  - Religion in the Ancient Greek City
• Burkert, Walter - Greek Religion
• Kindt, Julia - Rethinking Greek Religion
• Mikalson, Jon D. - Ancient Greek Religion
• Ogden, Daniel et. al. - A Companion to Greek Religion
• Parker, Robert - On Greek Religion
• Parker, Robert - Polytheism and Society at Athens

Full list:

Source material:

• Aeschines - Against Ctesiphon
• Aeschines - On the Embassy
• Aeschines - Against Timarchus
• Antiphon - Against the Stepmother for Poisoning
• Antiphon - First Tetralogy
• Antiphon - On the Choreutes
• Antiphon - On the Murder of Herodes
• Antiphon - Second Tetralogy
• Antiphon - Third Tetralogy
• Apollodorus - Library
• Apollonios of Alexandria - Argonautika
• Aesop - Fables
• Callimachus - Complete works
• Callimachus - Hymns
• Delphic Maxims of the Seven Sages
• Demosthenes - Letters
• Demosthenes - Prooimia (Exordia)
• Demosthenes - Speeches
• Demosthenes - Olynthiacs
• Demosthenes - Philippics
• Diodoros of Sicily - Library
• Epictetus - The Discourses
• Epictetus - The Enchiridion
• Epictetus - The Golden Sayings
• Euclid - The Elements
• Galen - On the Natural Faculties
• Herodotus - The Histories
• Hesiod - Shield of Herakles
• Hesiod - Theogony
• Hesiod - Works and Days
• Hippocratic corpus - Of Airs, Waters, and Places
• Hippocratic corpus - On Ancient Medicine
• Hippocratic corpus - Aphorisms
• Hippocratic corpus - On the Articulations
• Hippocratic corpus - Of Epidemics
• Hippocratic corpus - On Fistulae
• Hippocratic corpus - On Fractures
• Hippocratic corpus - On Hemorrhoids
• Hippocratic corpus - On Injuries of the Head
• Hippocratic corpus - Instruments of Reduction
• Hippocratic corpus - Law
• Hippocratic corpus - Oath
• Hippocratic corpus - Book of Prognostics
• Hippocratic corpus - On Regimen in Acute Diseases
• Hippocratic corpus - On the Sacred Disease
• Hippocratic corpus - On Surgery
• Hippocratic corpus - On Ulcers
• Hómēros - Homeric Hymns
• Hómēros - The Iliad
• Hómēros - The Odyssey
• Hyperides, Speeches
• Isaeus - Apollodorus
• Isaeus - Aristarchus
• Isaeus - Astyphilus
• Isaeus - Ciron
• Isaeus - Cleonymus
• Isaeus - Dicaeogenes
• Isaeus - Euphiletus
• Isaeus - Hagnias
• Isaeus - Menecles
• Isaeus - Nicostratus
• Isaeus - Philoctemon
• Isaeus - Pyrrhus
• Isocrates - Archidamus
• Isocrates - Aegineticus
• Isocrates - Against Callimachus
• Isocrates - Against Euthynus
• Isocrates - Against Lochites
• Isocrates - Against the Sophists
• Isocrates - Antidosis
• Isocrates - Areopagiticus
• Isocrates - Busiris
• Isocrates - Evagoras
• Isocrates - Helen
• Isocrates - Letters
• Isocrates - Nicocles, or The Cyprians
• Isocrates - On the Peace
• Isocrates - On the Team of Horses
• Isocrates - Panathenaicus
• Isocrates - Panegyricus
• Isocrates - Plataicus
• Isocrates - To Demonicus
• Isocrates - To Nicocles
• Isocrates - To Philip
• Isocrates - Trapeziticus 
• Lucian of Samosata - Complete works
• Orphic Hymns
• Ovid - Metamorphoses
• Parmenides of Elea - On nature
• Pausanias - Guide to Greece
• Philostratus - Lives of the Sophists
• Philostratus - Imagines
• Photios - Bibliotheke
• Pindar - Isthmian Odes
• Pindar - Nemean Odes
• Pindar - Olympian Odes
• Pindar - Pythian Odes
• Plutarch - Aemilius Paulus
• Plutarch - Agesilaus
• Plutarch - Agis
• Plutarch - Alcibiades
• Plutarch - Alexander
• Plutarch - Antony
• Plutarch - Aratus
• Plutarch - Aristides
• Plutarch - Artaxerxes
• Plutarch - Caesar
• Plutarch - Caius Gracchus
• Plutarch - Caius Marius
• Plutarch - Camillus
• Plutarch - Cato the Younger
• Plutarch - Cicero
• Plutarch - Cimon
• Plutarch - Cleomenes
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Alcibiades with Coriolanus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Crassus with Nicias
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Demetrius and Antony
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Dion and Brutus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Fabius with Pericles
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Lucullus with Cimon
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Lysander with Sylla
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Numa with Lycurgus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Pelopidas with Marcellus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Philopoemen with Flamininus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Pompey with Agesilaus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Poplicola with Solon
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Romulus with Theseus
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Sertorius with Plutarch - Eumenes
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus with Agis and Cleomenes
• Plutarch - The Comparison of Timoleon with Plutarch - Aemilius Paulus
• Plutarch - Coriolanus
• Plutarch - Crassus
• Plutarch - Demetrius
• Plutarch - Demosthenes
• Plutarch - Dion
• Plutarch - Eumenes
• Plutarch - Fabius
• Plutarch - Flamininus
• Plutarch - Galba
• Plutarch - Lucullus
• Plutarch - Lycurgus
• Plutarch - Lysander
• Plutarch - Marcellus
• Plutarch - Marcus Brutus
• Plutarch - Marcus Cato
• Plutarch - Nicias
• Plutarch - Numa Pompilius
• Plutarch - Otho
• Plutarch - Pelopidas
• Plutarch - Pericles
• Plutarch - Philopoemen
• Plutarch - Phocion
• Plutarch - Pompey
• Plutarch - Poplicola
• Plutarch - Pyrrhus
• Plutarch - Romulus
• Plutarch - Sertorius
• Plutarch - Solon
• Plutarch - Sylla
• Plutarch - Themistocles
• Plutarch - Theseus
• Plutarch - Tiberius Gracchus
• Plutarch - Timoleon
• Prokopios - On Greek writers
• Ptolemy - Claudius, Geography
• Ptolemy - Claudius, Tetrabiblos
• Sappho of Lesbos - Poems
• Solon's Precepts
• Strabo - Geography
• The Greek Magical Papyri
• Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War
• Xenophon - Agesilaus
• Xenophon - Anabasis
• Xenophon - Apology
• Xenophon - On the Art of Horsemanship
• Xenophon - On the Cavalry Commander
• Xenophon - The Constitution of the Xenophon - Lacedaimonians
• Xenophon - Cyropaedia
• Xenophon - Economics
• Xenophon - Hellenica
• Xenophon - Hiero
• Xenophon - On Hunting
• Xenophon - Memorabilia
• Xenophon - Symposium
• Xenophon - Ways and Means

Source material (Philosophers):

• Aristotle - The Athenian Constitution
• Aristotle - Categories
• Aristotle - On Dreams
• Aristotle - On the Gait of Animals
• Aristotle - On Generation and Corruption
• Aristotle - On the Heavens
• Aristotle - The History of Animals
• Aristotle - On Interpretation
• Aristotle - On Longevity and Shortness of Life
• Aristotle - On Memory and Reminiscence
• Aristotle - Metaphysics
• Aristotle - Meteorology
• Aristotle - On the Motion of Animals
• Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics
• Aristotle - On the Parts of Animals
• Aristotle - Physics
• Aristotle - Poetics
• Aristotle - Politics
• Aristotle - Posterior Analytics
• Aristotle - Prior Analytics
• Aristotle - On Prophesying by Dreams
• Aristotle - Rhetoric
• Aristotle - On Sense and the Sensible
• Aristotle - On Sleep and Sleeplessness
• Aristotle - On Sophistical Refutations
• Aristotle - On the Soul
• Aristotle - Topics
• Aristotle - Virtues and Vices
• Aristotle - On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing
• Plato - Apology
• Plato - Charmides, or Temperance
• Plato - Cratylus
• Plato - Critias
• Plato - Crito
• Plato - Euthydemus
• Plato - Euthyphro
• Plato - Gorgias
• Plato - Ion
• Plato - Laches, or Courage
• Plato - Laws
• Plato - Lysis, or Friendship
• Plato - Meno
• Plato - Parmenides
• Plato - Phaedo
• Plato - Phaedrus
• Plato - Philebus
• Plato - Protagoras
• Plato - The Republic
• Plato - The Seventh Letter
• Plato - Sophist
• Plato - Statesman
• Plato - Symposium
• Plato - Theaetetus
• Plato - Timaeus
• Porphyry - On Abstinence
• Porphyry - Against the Christians
• Porphyry - On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey
• Porphyry - Eisagoge
• Porphyry - On Images
• Porphyry - Letter to Anebo
• Porphyry - Letter to his Wife Marcella
• Porphyry - Life of Plotinos
• Porphyry - Life of Pythagoras
• Porphyry - Sentences
• Proklos Diadochos - On the Eternity of the World
• Pythagoras of Samos - Golden Verses

Source material (Theater):

• Aeschylus - Prometheus
• Aeschylus - Seven Against Thebes
• Aeschylus - The Persians
• Aeschylus - The Oresteia: Agamemnon
• Aeschylus - The Oresteia: The Libartion Bearers
• Aeschylus - The Oresteia: The Eumenides
• Aeschylus - The Supplicants
• Aristophanes - Lysistrata
• Aristophanes - Peace
• Aristophanes - Plutus
• Aristophanes - The Acharnians
• Aristophanes - The Birds
• Aristophanes - The Clouds
• Aristophanes - The Ecclesiazusae
• Aristophanes - The Frogs
• Aristophanes - The Knights
• Aristophanes - The Thesmophoriazusae
• Aristophanes - The Wasps
• Euripedes - Alcestis
• Euripedes - Andromache
• Euripedes - Cyclops
• Euripedes - Electra
• Euripedes - Hecuba
• Euripedes - Helen
• Euripedes - Heracles
• Euripedes - Hippolytus
• Euripedes - Ion
• Euripedes - Iphigenia at Aulis
• Euripedes - Iphigenia in Tauris
• Euripedes - Medea
• Euripedes - Orestes
• Euripedes - The Bacchae
• Euripedes - The Children of Herakles
• Euripedes - The Phoenician Women
• Euripedes - The Suppliants
• Euripedes - The Trojan Women
• Sophocles - Ajax
• Sophocles - Antigone
• Sophocles - Electra
• Sophocles - Oedipus at Colonus
• Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
• Sophocles - Philoctetes
• Sophocles - Trachiniae

Scholarly work (Books):

• Adkins, Roy & Adkins, Lesley - Handbook To Life In Ancient Greece
• Bruit Zaidman, Louise & Schmitt Pantel, Pauline  - Religion in the Ancient Greek City
• Burkert, Walter - Ancient Mystery Cults
• Burkert, Walter - Greek Religion
• Burkert, Walter - Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth
• Garland, Robert - The Greek Way of Life: From Conception to Old Age
• Garland, Robert - The Greek Way of Death
• Graf, Fritz - Greek Mythology
• Graf, Fritz - Magic in the Ancient World
• Graf, Fritz & Johnston, Sarah Iles - Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets
• Guthrie, W.T.C. - The Greeks and their Gods
• Harrison, Jane Ellen - Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion
• Johnston, Sarah Iles - Ancient Greek Divination
• Johnston, Sarah Iles - Ancient Religions
• Johnston, Sarah Iles - Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide
• Johnston, Sarah Iles - Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece
• Kerenyi, Karl - Eleusis
• Kerenyi, Karl - Gods of the Greeks
• Kerenyi, Karl - Religion of the Greeks and Romans
• Kindt, Julia - Rethinking Greek Religion
• Lefkowitz, Mary - Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths
• Luck, Georg - Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds
• Martin, Thomas R. - Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
• Meyer, Mavin - The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World
• Mikalson, Jon D. - Athenian Popular Religion
• Mikalson, Jon D. - Ancient Greek Religion
• Mikalson, Jon D. - Honor Thy Gods: Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy
• Nilsson, Martin P. - Greek Folk Religion
• Ogden, Daniel et. al. - A Companion to Greek Religion
• Otto, Walter - The Homeric Gods
• Parke, H. W. - Festivals of the Athenians
• Parker, Robert - Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion
• Parker, Robert - On Greek Religion
• Parker, Robert - Polytheism and Society at Athens
• Pickard-Cambridge, Arthus - The Dramatic Festivals of Athens
• Ruck, Carl - The Road To Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries
• Younger, John G. - Sex In The Ancient World From A To Z

Scholarly work (Essays):

• Budrovich, Nicole - Male Abstinence Portrayed: A Lofty Ideal and Dangerous Extreme in Ancient Greek Sexuality (University of California Davis, 2012)
• Camps-Gaset, Montserrat & Grau, Sergi - Philosophy for the Body, Food for the Mind (Coolabah, No.5, 2011, Australian Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona)
• Dow, Sterling - The Greater Demarkhia of Erchia. (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, Volume 89, livraison 1, 1965. pp. 180-213)
• Ekroth, Gunnel - The sacrificial rituals of Greek hero-cults in the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods (Centre International d’Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique Liège, 2002)
• Hart, Anita - Year-End Festivals of the Athenian Acropolis (2009, College of Charleston)
• Hawley, Richard - Give me a Thousand Kisses (Leeds International Studies 6.5, 2007)
• Keller, Mara Lynn - The Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries (Rosicrucian Digest No. 2 2009)
• Kurke, Leslie - Pindar and the Prostitutes, or Reading Ancient "Pornography" (Arion, Third Series, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall, 1996), pp. 49-75)
• Mavrommatis, Panayiotis P. - Founding Democracy The democratic character of Solon's reforms
• Mikalson, Jon D. - The Noumenia and Epimenia in Athens (The Harvard Theological Review, Vol 65, No 2 (Apr., 1972), 291-296)
• Parker, Holt N. - Women Physicians in Greece, Rome and the Byzantine Empire (1979, University of Kentucky)
• Rassias, Vlassis G. - The English Lexicon of Standard Terminology For Hellenismos
• Scullion, Scott - Heroic and Khthonian sacrifice - New evidence from Selinous (Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 132 (2000) 163–171)
• Robertson, Noel - Poseidon's Festival at the Winter Solstice (The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 34, No 1. (1984), pp. 1-16)
• Walters, K.R. - Geography and kinship as political infrastructures in archaic Athens (Florilegium vol. 4, 1982)

Modern works:

• Campbell, Drew - Old Stones, New Temples: Ancient Greek Paganism Reborn
• Timothy Jay Alexander - A Beginner's Guide to Hellenismos
• Timothy Jay Alexander - Hellenismos Today
• Winter, Sarah Kate Istra - Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored (first edition!)

Video:

• Astarte Resources - Exploring Ancient Greece: Society & Religion
• Institute for Mediterranean Studies - Video Lecture Series Volume I: Pandora's Box: The Roles of Women In Ancient Greece
• Institute for Mediterranean Studies - Video Lecture Series Volume II: The Ancient Olympics: Athletes, Games & Heroes
• Institute for Mediterranean Studies - Video Lecture Series Volume III: Myth, Man & Metal: Bronze Sculpture of Ancient Greece and Rome
• Institute for Mediterranean Studies - Video Lecture Series Volume IV: Gladiators: Sports & Entertainment in the Roman World
• Institute for Mediterranean Studies - Video Lecture Series Volume V: Coming of Age in Ancient Greece
• Said, Jamil - I Still Worship Zeus