Abstract
This thesis explores how space and ritual functioned rhetorically in religious settings in ancient Greece. Epidaurus, Eleusis, and Delphi were the three sacred spaces used as case studies. These spaces represented three different functions of Greek religion: healing, mystery cult, and oracular divination. Using the method of close reading, rhetorical analysis of the spaces and rituals revealed that foundation myths gave rhetorical meaning to the place of the sanctuary, which framed the spaces within it. This meaning was communicated to the inner self of the supplicants who performed rituals in those spaces. The repetition of rituals in those spaces made them into places of public memory, and the interplay of ritual, place, and memory resulted in a sense of Greek and polis identity.