Ancient Mystery Cults

Walter Burkert was Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Zurich.

• Introduction 1. Personal Needs in This Life and after Death 2. Organization and Identities 3. Theologia and Mysteries: Myth, Allegory, and Platonism 4. The Extraordinary Experience Abbreviations Bibliography Notes Index of Greek Terms General Index

Walter Burkert’s publication of his 1982 Jackson Lectures at Harvard University is another of his important contributions to our understanding of the religions of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern cultures. Everything from his pen is welcome and an education… His knowledge of the sources is encyclopedic, his judgment in combining them original, illuminating, and persuasive… This study is bound to become a standard text in the history of religion and in the interpretation of individual experiences in antiquity… This slender but packed volume is another powerful document in intellectual history.