Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion [Paperback]

Steven H. Lonsdale (Author)

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Product Details

Paperback: 380 pages
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (December 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0801867592
ISBN-13: 978-0801867590
Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 1.4 x 0.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 522 g

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Review

This book offers a thorough and detailed review of the evidence for the function of dance to 'express divine adoration and human festivity in Greek culture.'. New England Classical Newsletter and Journal

Book Description

In private and in public life, the ancient Greeks danced to express divine adoration and human festivity. They danced at feasts and choral competitions, at weddings and funerals, in observance of the cycles of both nature and human existence. Formal and informal dances marked the rhythms of life and death.

In Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion, Steven Lonsdale looks at how the Greeks themselves regarded the act of dance, and how dance and related forms of ritual play in Greek religious festivals served a wide variety of functions in Greek society. The act of worship, he explains, often implied engaging in collective rites regulated by playful behavior, the most common forms of which were group hymns and choral dances.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Much of ancient Greek culture is lost without an understanding of religious festivals and games. Read the first page

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Concordance

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Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough examination of the function of dance in Ancient Greece, Nov 8 2009

By Cassandra Strand "cassandra_s" - Published on Amazon.com

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This review is from: Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion (Paperback)

This book examines the function of dance in ancient Greek religion. It does a very thorough job of examining it's function in various parts of worship. There are many translations of historical references in the text but also very good analysis of what the passages imply. It certainly gave me a very good understanding of how dance fit into religious life in Greece but I wish it had also gone onto discuss specific dances as well. The book covers an array of human transitions and how dance played a functional role in them such as the transition from being a boy to a man or a girl to a woman. It covers dance as it relates to both fertility/childbirth and death as well. I loved that it covered so many of the functions dance had in Ancient Greece. The only problems I had with this book (and subsequently the reason why it received only 4 stars) were that the author sometimes seemed to really be driving a point sometimes and in doing so sometimes reiterates his point far too much. Secondly, he gets a little wordy from time to time to the point where I found after having read the page I really didn't know what he was talking about anymore as I had gotten lost somewhere in the middle of what he was trying to say. I also thought he brought Plato's laws into play little too much and although I think he did an excelent job demonstrating how Plato's laws reflected the functionality and purpose of dance in Ancient Greece it seemed at times as though he was trying too hard.

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