Showing results by author "Jane Ellen Harrison" in All Categories

Jane Ellen Harrison was an English classical scholar whose work had a particular focus on the earliest origins of Greek religion. Her Mythology is a popular rather than an academic book, and its subject is the psychological/cultural history and “purpose” of the chief Olympian gods and certain other mythological creatures, both for the ancient Greeks themselves, and through history to the present day. It is a short, accessible, and engaging book in a similar style to Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. (Summary by ChristineB)

Ancient Art and Ritual is a book by Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928), who was a student of anthropology and a classical scholar by training. The book shows how mankind has always used rituals to celebrate new life or rites of passage and examines the way that these rituals evolved into art forms. The author also shows how rituals and rites of passage developed into visual and dramatic art, dance, and sculpture as a way of expressing the religious urge. She identifies intense emotional energy as the driving force behind all artistic expression.