John Pedley has conceived Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient Greek World as a college-level introduction to Greek sanctuaries and their place in ancient Greek society. Particular emphasis is given to the natural and built appearance of sanctuaries, to the works of visual arts populating those spaces, to the visual experiences of visitors, to the ritual activities, and to the transformations of sanctuaries over time, from their origins up to the present.

After outlining the main themes of the book, Pedley sketches a general introduction to the nature and development of sanctuaries from the Geometric period to the beginning of the Hellenistic period (ca. 800–323 BCE). Chapter 2 (“Setting the Stage”) contains a basic overview of the Greek pantheon and of the chronological and geographical frame of the sanctuaries discussed in the book, a review of the nature of the available evidence concerning sanctuaries, and, finally, a presentation of the two basic elements of social organization in Ancient Greece: the family and the polis. Chapter 3 (“Growth and Variety”) considers the development of monumental sanctuaries of Olympian gods during the Archaic and Classical periods, and discusses sanctuaries of heroes and smaller sanctuaries. Chapter 4 (“The Siting of Sanctuaries”) follows recent attempts at classification of sanctuaries based on their placement in relation to the polis. Accordingly, Pedley discusses the siting of sanctuaries according to a series of categories: interurban, urban, suburban, extraurban, and rural sanctuaries. A final paragraph is dedicated to a discussion of de Polignac’s theories concerning the relation between the placement of sanctuaries and the formation of the polis. Chapter 5 (“Architecture for the Gods: Sacred Building”) is dedicated to the main architectural features of sanctuaries: peribolos walls, propyla, altars, temples, treasuries, stoas, dining rooms, buildings for games and spectacles (training rooms, exercise areas, stadia, and theaters), and fountain houses. Chapter 6 (“Activities and Experiences, I: Rites and Rituals”) is devoted to the main ritual activities performed in sanctuaries, and discusses festivals, sacrifices, dancing, dining and drinking, contacting the gods through oracles, divination and dreams, and rituals of initiation. This chapter ends with a discussion of the use of sanctuaries as places of refuge, purification, and healing. Chapter 7 (“Activities and Experiences, II: Offerings”) concentrates on votive offerings, and contains an introduction to state offerings (including cult-statues) and personal ones during the Archaic and Classical periods. This chapter ends with an introduction to “verbal offerings”: prayers, hymns, and songs.

The second part of the book contains a description of selected sanctuaries, namely Olympia (chapter 8), Delphi (chapter 9), Samos (Heraion, chapter 10), Poseidonia (urban, suburban, and extraurban sanctuaries; chapter 11), and Athens (Akropolis, chapter 12). In each case, an introduction dedicated to the location and character of the sanctuary is followed by a discussion of the origins of the cult and a description of the changes in the architecture and dedications during the Archaic and Classical periods; a final paragraph is dedicated to festivals.

The third part of the book deals with the transformation of sanctuaries from the Hellenistic period up to the present time. One would expect this section to have the same general character as the first part, but, in fact, it is focused on the selected sanctuaries discussed in part 2. Chapter 13 (“Greece, Rome and Byzantium”) outlines the changes of sanctuaries during the Hellenistic and the Roman periods, and the transformations in Late Antiquity with the spread of Christianity. Chapter 14 (“The Aftermath”) presents the transformations of sanctuaries (in particular the Akropolis) during the Middle Ages, and describes their rediscovery by travelers and architects after the fifteenth century. The last section is devoted to the activities of archaeologists and to the problems of site protection, conservation, and management in the age of mass tourism.

The book ends with a rich bibliography, arranged thematically, and a very detailed index. It contains several good-quality illustrations, carefully selected and positioned within the text.

I am surprised by the fact that this book does not deal systematically with the Hellenistic period, given that this period is so critical in the evolution of sacred space in the Ancient World, and given the interest of the author in the post-Classical history of sanctuaries, all the way up to the present. The decision to deemphasize a period so important for Greek history and culture means that some major Greek sanctuaries receive only a cursory mention (Kos, Samothrace, Pergamon), while others are not mentioned at all (Lindos, Magnesia, Priene). Also, there is a laudable, systematic effort by the author to introduce sanctuaries all over the Greek world; but Delos would have been worth a systematic discussion, as would sanctuaries at Aegina, Corcyra, Didyma, and Nemea. Some major sanctuaries in Mainland Greece and in East Greece are not mentioned, like Kalapodi, Kalydon, the Ptoon, Thasos, and Thermon. In the West, Poseidonia/Paestum receives much attention, but sanctuaries at major sites such as Akragas, Gela, Locri, Metapontum, Selinus, and Syracuse are left at the margins, while sanctuaries at Himera and Kroton are not mentioned.

Since Pedley’s book engages with the current (2005) state of research regarding individual monuments and sites, I am surprised by his lack of references to the debates on whether or not the Parthenon was a temple, and on the nature and function of cult-statues. Also, the discussion concerning the function of stoas (presented only as shelters and dormitories) does not seem to take into consideration the work by Gerhard Kuhn who points to the possible use of these structures in connection with ritual activities in the sanctuary (“Untersuchungen zur Funktion der Säulenhalle in archaischer und klassischer Zeit,” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 100 (1985): 169–317).

I have trouble with the following definitions. Using the term “interurban” sanctuaries instead of “Panhellenic” sanctuaries in reference to places such as Delphi and Olympia makes the classification of sanctuaries dependent on their relation to the polis as an urban center, thus neglecting the fact that the appeal of such sanctuaries reached well beyond the limits of the polis-system. I am also not partial to the definition of Asklepios sanctuaries as “spas” (32), since these sanctuaries functioned rather as sacred hospitals and nursing-homes.

This book is an excellent introduction to Greek sanctuaries, and one that, although intentionally “undertheorized,” is generally up-to-date from a methodological point of view. A larger anthropological and cross-cultural framework is missing, though, but this is typical of most older as well as recent discussions of Greek sanctuaries. The description of the different components of Greek sanctuaries and the analysis of their correlation with cult practice has a long history in the fields of Classical Scholarship and Architectural Theory, having been pioneered in the mid-nineteenth century by the German architect and archaeologist Karl Bötticher (1806–1889) (Die Tektonik der Hellenen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Ernst & Korn, 1874–81, esp. part II, Der Tempel in seiner räumlichen Anordnung und Ausstattung). However, we are still far away from a larger, anthropological understanding of Greek sanctuaries as a liminal zone between This World, the world of the mortals, and the Other World, the world of the immortals (cf., E.R. Leach, Culture and Communication, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976), or from a systematic cross-cultural comparison with sacred spaces in cultures other than the Greek and Roman (cf., C. Humphrey and P. Vitebsky, Sacred Architecture, London: Thorsons, 2003).

Nevertheless, I particularly treasure Pedley’s effort to bring together architecture, images, and rituals. The interdisciplinary nature of the resulting work makes the publication ideal not only for undergraduate and graduate students in archaeology, but also those in classics, history, anthropology, and art history.