Coping With the Gods ─ Wayward Readings in Greek Theology

Among the themes addressed in six chapters: complications of polytheism, divine justice or divine arbitrariness, Greek experiments in oneness, why Hermes is hungry, divine omnipotence, and the question of whether Greeks believed in the divinity of their rulers. Versnel (emeritus, ancient history, U. of Leiden, The Netherlands) enjoys the inconsistencies and paradoxes of Greek religion and has written extensively on various aspects of Greek and Roman myth, ritual, magic, and religion. The essays collected here are based on his Sather Lectures at the U. of California at Berkeley, in 1999. Their cumulative length excluded them from being published in the U. of California Press's "Sather Classical Lectures" series and instead the collection is published in Brill's "Religions in the Graeco-Roman World" series. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Henk S. Versnel, Ph.D. (1970) in Classics (Leiden), is Emeritus Professor in Ancient History (University Leiden). He has published extensively on Greek and Roman myth, ritual, magic and religion, including two volumes on "Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion" (Brill, 1990 and 1993).