Exploring the Sacred Landscape of the Ancient Peloponnese : Cults and Sacred Places

Exploring the Sacred Landscape of the Ancient Peloponnese traces the origins of the religious system of the Peloponnese to identify the factors behind its subsequent development from the Geometric to the Classical period. Which deities found favour in the Peloponnese? What factors lay behind local religious manifestations? What were their special attributes? How were the Olympian gods adapted within the context of previous religious systems and deities?

Through a presentation of cult places, the deities worshipped, and the epithets used, the book explores preferences for particular deities and the reasons for this. The chthonian attributes of the deities are an important factor, and such attributes are further elucidated by the myths that accompany them.

Reconstructing the ancient religious landscape and the political, economic and social context sheds light on how the cult places played their role and demonstrates how the primitive chthonian character of some deities survived over the years. Religious and political needs were combined, and a network of sacred places with significant prestige, authority and power was the result.