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    Two questions

    Sorry for the ambiguous thread title, but I wanted to combine two questions into one thread:

    1. Which religion, Roman or Greek, is there more surviving information on (and, thusly, which is easier to reconstruct)?

    2. What texts or books should I read to learn about these religions? For example, if someone wanted to learn about Heathenism, I'd tell him to read the Eddas. What books contain the knowledge of the Greek and Roman religions?

    Thank you!
    -Valhalla

    #2
    Re: Two questions

    If you want firsthand scources, I would give some of Julius Caesars writings a shot, they were quite political however and are not often considered good starting places for god/goddess info. I would say the roman religion would have more information that survives because of how prolific they were and their really crazy penchant for writing everything down. Keep in mind they were notorius syncretists though, so many recons have to sort of pick a period because between certain conquests things get changed.
    http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

    But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
    ~Jim Butcher

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      #3
      Re: Two questions

      You could start off with something like Hesiod's Theogeny.
      www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


      Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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        #4
        Of Thespiae

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          #5
          Re: Two questions

          A caveat with Ovid: the guy was a political satirist. He is one of the most complete sources for a lot of the myths we have, however, you have to take him with a big grain of salt, for all the same reasons someone coming along 500 years from now and taking The Colbert Report as a historic document would run into issues. He made Zeus look comical in his affairs, and Hera look like a jealous harpy because he was commenting on the emperor(not to mention in all likelihood an atheist himself). He eventually got himself kicked out of Greece for his social commentary.

          I would not exclude him for that, though...his writing style is wonderful and brings things to life, including a number of minor characters that are difficult to identify elsewhere. Just do your homework, and keep your sarcasm meter running.
          Great Grandmother's Kitchen

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