Mixanthrôpoi

Many of the beings in this book – Cheiron, Pan, Acheloos, the Sirens and
others – will be familiar from the narratives of Greek mythology, in which
fabulous anatomies abound. However, they have never previously been studied
together from a religious perspective, as recipients of cult and as members of
the ancient pantheon. This book is the first major treatment of the use of
part-animal – mixanthropic – form in the representation and visual imagination
of Greek gods and goddesses, and of its significance with regard to divine
character and function. What did it mean to depict deities in a form so
strongly associated in the ancient imagination with monstrous adversaries? How
did iconography, myth and ritual interact in particular sites of worship?
Drawing together literary and visual material, this study establishes the
themes dominant in the worship of divine mixanthropes, and argues that, so far
from being insignificant curiosities, they make possible a greater
understanding of the fabric of ancient religious practice, in particular the
tense and challenging relationship between divinity and visual representation.