The first book to explore the religious dimensions of the family and the household in ancient Mediterranean and West Asian antiquity. * Advances our understanding of household and familial religion, as opposed to state-sponsored or civic temple cults * Reconstructs domestic and family religious practices in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Israel, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Emar, and Philistia * Explores many household rituals, such as providing for ancestral spirits, and petitioning of a household's patron deities or of spirits associated with the house itself * Examines lifecycle rituals - from pregnancy and birth to maturity, old age, death, and beyond * Looks at religious practices relating to the household both within the home itself and other spaces, such as at extramural tombs and local sanctuaries