Ritual and Authority in Early Athens

This study examines the religious authority of leading families in the context of another emerging authority, the state, in Early Athens, i.e., Geometric, Archaic, and Early Classical Athens and Attica, ca. 1000-450 B.C.E. This examination provides a corrective to current polis-centric approaches to the study of early Athenian Religion. It is not the state that defined and constituted religious life in Early Athens. The reverse is true: elite and powerful families were the principal authorities over the religious life of Athens and Attica, both within and outside of state institutions. Their possession of this authority shaped and influenced the way in which the Athenian state emerged, and the relationship of the state to existing religious practice and power structures. The religious authority that the emerging state attained did not come at the expense of families; the possession of religious authority is not a zero-sum game. Rather, as the state came to sponsor and oversee certain sanctuaries and festivals, what the families lost was their exclusivity