In October 2016 a number of distinguished scholars gathered in Kasteel Oud-Poelgeest in Oegstgeest, near Leiden, the Netherlands, to contribute to a table ronde in celebration of Henk Versnel’s eightieth birthday that year. This roundtable was dedicated to an assessment of the important contributions made by Versnel to the field of ancient religion and magic. His work on myth and ritual, self-sacrifice, cursing and praying, henotheism and ancient thought about magic, religion and gods, has had a pervasive influence on several generations of scholars.

The contributors to the present volume have in common that their work has – implicitly and/or explicitly – been affected by that of Versnel. Over the course of three days, they discussed Versnel’s work and its impact. The setting of a small table ronde attended by the speakers, the organizers and just a few others allowed for plenty of discussion and feedback – not least from Versnel himself. We have happy memories about these days and the sense of togetherness that was everyone’s gift to Henk, a valued colleague and friend. Despite the fact that the occasion was dubbed ‘the Henk-Fest’ by one of those present, a designation that quickly caught on, the roundtable was not intended to result in a traditional Festschrift – where contributors fete the honorand by indulging themselves in their various individual interests – but a historiographic volume about the variegated interests of the honorand himself.

You will find here the proceedings of the roundtable with two added papers, a general overview of Versnel’s academic career and a bibliography of his published work. We are very grateful that Michael Konaris and Christina Eschner were willing and able to contribute two papers that address a number of issues that received too little attention at the table ronde. In addition, Versnel himself has composed an epilogue in which he responds to some of the subjects raised. The length of his response to the individual papers varies greatly: this, however, should not be seen as in any way a reflection of Versnel’s appreciation. First, as he once wrote himself: “a critic has a really difficult time when he agrees in all or most instances with the author whose work he is discussing” (Versnel 1996, 52). Secondly, it was the tortuous, at times even tortured production of the epilogue, because of dire personal circumstances and a pandemic, that necessitated some cutting of corners. No amount of cutting could prevent this publication from being seriously delayed. However, we think the added value of Henk’s comments, incomplete as they are – but this most of all to his own demanding mind – provides ample justification for the long wait – for which we nevertheless apologise to all concerned.

This collection fittingly appears as volume 200 in the Religions in the Graeco-Roman World series, the ‘green books’, in the history of which Versnel has played a pivotal role, as a long-term editor and as an author. It seems to us the self-evident place to publish this volume, its title of course inspired by his own magnum opus in the series.

We thank the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (KNAW), Leids Universitair Fonds (LUF), and the History Institute at Leiden University for their generosity in making the roundtable possible. Brill Publishers contributed towards outreach by subsidizing a public lecture by Jennifer Larson at the History Department of Leiden University. In addition to the contributors to this volume, the following were present at the roundtable and chaired sessions: Johannes Hahn, Miguel John Versluys and Marcus Altena Davidsen. We express our gratitude to all of them. Patricia Kret, now a PhD student at Leiden, at the time a bachelor student, was on-hand during the conference to offer her much-appreciated assistance. Anna Beerens did a great editing job on this complicated manuscript. Florence Cobben did meticulous additional proofreading.

Kim Beerden and Frits Naerebout