"Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World" by Tim Whitmarsh

Publisher:New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780307958327
Characteristics: viii, 290 pages

This is a scholarly publication that looks in depth at the relationship of what we refer to as religion and Greek mythology. 

It examines the philosophies and writings of a number of different Greek philosophers who wrote on the subjects of atheism or at the very least the concepts that the gods may not exist. I say it this way, as in many context now-a-days atheism is automatically thought to be the non-belief in one of Abrahamic religions. However this took place many hundreds of year before any of that was thought up.

For the most the book it concerns itself that what is commonly referred to as Greek mythology but is in actual fact more of a system of folklore and folktales rather than an actual religion. The reason for this is because for the most part the religious figures that were present in Greece at the time we're not comparable in anyway to what we currently see as priests and clerics as they were more there to aid the populace and provide comfort as opposed to guiding them towards certain  deities.

This book is an excellent read however some readers may find it somewhat daunting due to the number of references made to the various Greek historical figures, playwrights and philosophers. I think it would make an excellent text for a class in comparative religions, classics, or cultural anthropology.