osiris_jones's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

3.5

daj89's review against another edition

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4.0

This volume is really made up of two books, one by Zivie-Coche covering dynastic Egypt and another by Dunand on the Greco-Roman period. Both cover beliefs and practices in roughly equal depth, which many current books on Egyptian religion unfortunately fail to do. The joint between the two parts is visible, but I don't think it's likely to cause confusion, because the start of the latter book gives a historical overview of the Greco-Roman period and its background.

Zivie-Coche's section is admirably thorough, with chapters discussing the gods, Egyptian beliefs about creation and the passage of time, temples, popular religion, and funerary practices. It is one of the few well-rounded books on Egyptian religion. The other major one is Stephen Quirke's [b:Ancient Egyptian Religion|868644|Ancient Egyptian Religion|Stephen Quirke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266662436l/868644._SX50_.jpg|854030], which is less dense and analytical than this book and may be a better introduction to the subject.

Dunand's section covers a lot of territory and feels a bit less cohesive. It describes how temples, popular religion, and funerary religion developed in Greco-Roman times, and it examines new factors in the equation: the Ptolemaic and Roman rulers, the hybrid Greco-Egyptian god Sarapis, the introduction of new religious beliefs (including Judaism and various forms of Christianity), and religious conflict. Dunand seems to contradict herself when discussing how separate the Greek and Egyptian cultural spheres were, perhaps because the relationship between them changed greatly between early Ptolemaic times and the early centuries of Roman rule. She does, however, deserve credit for covering the religious diversity in Greco-Roman Egypt, including Greek and Roman cults, Judaism, and even some of the variety of Christian sects, better than any other overview of Egyptian religion.