Overview: As part of a series exploring different religious traditions and beliefs in the ancient world, Pantheon: The Greeks covers the basics of Greek mythology to ground readers and practitioners in history, mythology, cosmology, ritual, celebrations, rituals, prayers, and magic, as well as gods, goddesses, and other beings.

Verdict: Growing up I was taught that Greek mythology was a collection of stories about gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters that the ancient Greeks told to explain the world around them. The core of it involves the Olympian gods, led by Zeus, who ruled from Mount Olympus and often interacted with mortals, sometimes causing great feats and sometimes intervening in their lives. These myths explored themes like creation, war, love, and morality, and provided a framework for understanding natural phenomena, human nature, and the universe.

A little concise for all that falls under the umbrella of Greek mythology, I will grant you that, and so Pantheon: The Greeks by author Irisanya Moon is a very welcome addition to my ever-expanded collection on the subject matter.

For as she herself explains from the very off, there was and therefor is no single group of Greeks. While books and articles speak of Ancient Greece, it is not a monolith, making it difficult to define or narrow it into a complete summary. The history is varied and involves numerous groups, interpretations and translations of texts, settings, cultures, fragments of stories, etc.

She then gives us a history of Greece, where the diffusion of Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean area those Greeks who found themselves widely separated from their traditional homeland to define themselves conspicuously in terms of their shard culture.

Indeed, one prominent feature of this shared culture was the worship of a common pantheon of gods, headed by Olympian Zeus.

The book continues to deep dive and me personally, I loved every second of this book build. It helped greatly in me being able to fill in some aspects of Greek Mythology that I had either never known or had gotten misled on down the years, and for that alone I can only offer the highest of praise to the author.

For there is a scholarly bent to Irisanya Moon’s writing here, her prose most definitely one written in not only a dutifully methodical manner, but also one alive with an objectiveness that is both rigorously unabashed and yet steeping in meaningful inspiration.

About the Author - Irisanya Moon (she/they) is an author, witch, international teacher, poet, and Reclaiming initiate who has practiced magick for 20+ years. She has taught in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, bringing her blend of grounded, graceful, and radically authentic facilitation to inspire transformation and liberation at the personal and collective levels.

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