1. Scriptural / Textual
- No single canon. Authority dispersed across Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Hesiod (Theogony, Works and Days), Homeric Hymns, tragedies, philosophical treatises.
- Ritual handbooks (hieroi logoi) and Orphic texts give glimpses of esoteric traditions.
- Issues: multiple authors, long oral-to-written transmission, regional variation, heavy redaction by later editors.
2. Oral Traditions
- Epic recitation, choral hymns, myth-telling at festivals.
- Local genealogies and foundation myths transmitted orally before literary fixing.
- Fragile under time: performance context varied, myths evolved by city, and poetic adaptation often reshaped meaning.
3. Archaeological / Material
- Temples (Parthenon, Delphi, Olympia), altars, votive offerings, ritual vessels.
- Sanctuaries (Eleusis, Delos, Dodona) give physical context for ritual practice.
- Survival bias: monumental cults preserved, domestic shrines and minor rituals less visible.
4. Epigraphic / Inscriptions
- Sacred laws, temple accounts, dedicatory inscriptions, boundary stones (horoi).
- Evidence of financial administration of sanctuaries, priestly regulations, public decrees tied to cult.
- Often formulaic, privileging civic and official religious expressions.
5. Historical Records
- Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Pausanias, Plutarch preserve religious anecdotes, omens, temple histories.
- Athenian polis records and festival calendars document ritual cycles.
- Limitations: historians often pragmatic, framing religion as background to politics or morality.
6. Comparative / Cross-Cultural Parallels
- Clear Indo-European parallels in sky gods (Zeus vs. Jupiter, Indra).
- Strong cross-pollination with Near East (Aphrodite-Ishtar, Dionysus from Thrace/Asia Minor, Demeter parallels with Anatolian grain cults).
- Comparative method useful but risks over-universalizing myth structures.
7. Modern Ethnography
- Direct ethnography impossible (tradition extinct).
- Folklore studies in rural Greece trace echoes of ancient ritual in seasonal festivals, charms, agricultural practices.
- Interpretive risk: projecting continuity where gaps exist, or reading folk Orthodoxy as direct survival.
8. Critical Evaluation
- Strongest evidence: inscriptions + archaeology (concrete, datable, direct).
- Texts: rich but reshaped by poets, philosophers, and later editors.
- Oral tradition: fragmentary, filtered through literary versions.
- Emic vs etic divide: emic ritual language often formulaic, etic accounts colored by politics, philosophy, or Christian polemic.
- Greek religion emerges as plural, localized, and performative rather than centrally codified—flexible networks of gods, myths, and festivals.