Sharing with the Gods: Aparchai and Dekatai in Ancient Greece

Sharing with the Gods offers a compelling analysis of one of the most ubiquitous religious practices in ancient Greece, the offering of ‘first-fruits’ and ‘tithes’.

Sharing with the Gods examines one of the most ubiquitous yet little studied aspects of ancient Greek religion, the offering of so-called 'first-fruits' (aparchai) and 'tithes' (dekatai).

While most existing studies of Greek religion tend to focus on ritual performance, this volume investigates questions of religious belief and mentality: why the Greeks presented these gifts to the gods, and what their behaviour tells us about their religious world-view, presuppositions, and perception of the gods. It offers new perspectives with which to conceptualize human-divine relations, and challenges traditional views of the nature of gift-giving between men and gods in Greek religion.

Find out more at Oxford University Press