Here’s a question for anyone who might have ideas… I’ve read a lot about mythology over the years (and for the purposes of this post let’s stick with classical Greek and Roman myth), but somebody today asked me who the experts in the field are these days – modern, living, still researching/writing/talking about it. I could pick a couple of names, but, really, I was surprised at how few I could come up with. On the one hand I know that we’ve learned a lot of new things since the common ideas about those old myths as popularized 100 years ago and further back, but then I don’t recall names and such.
Who are today’s experts in these fields? Any clues there? Who speaks with authority, and what are they up to?
Nearly any large University will have a Classics Department, which includes this as one part of their curriculum. The University of Minnesota Classics course list (here: http://www.d.umn.edu/registrar/transfer_Sem/um_Sem/clas.htm) lists courses specifically on ‘Greek and Roman Mythology’.
So I’d say that the Professors who teach such classes would qualify as experts. You could probably call any of them and ask who they consider the most authorative people in the field.
I was looking more for the comments of people here.
I hope you don’t go to all the general question posts and respond that people should call someone at random who happens to teach a class covering that topic (which certainly by itself doesn’t mean that they are experts). I just can’t see how that’s particularly useful.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re looking for. Do you want actual names of people? Say Professor Harvard of Yale University, who is an expect in early Homeric imagery, and Professor Yale of Harvard University, who knows all about the social history of the lares and penates of Rome?
There are obviously hundreds of these, not just in Classics programs, but in Literature, Anthropology, Religion and other disciplines.
Whatever you’re looking for, why not do some research into the many academic journals that cover the field, to see who is publishing in them. They will also have reviews of hundreds of the books that are written in the field. You can also check academic publishers, or even Amazon, on these subjects to garner names. And this would get you many more names than just those experts on Greece and Rome, since dozens of mythologies are being studied.
That would get you a lot farther than asking for a few random names here, even though I’m sure we have some experts.
Perhaps I should have been clearer. I am a bit of an expert on mythology myself. I do not need to be told to check with local professors at community colleges (people here have a strange view of what expert means). What I am looking for is names of the leading lights of current knowledge in the field of Greco-Roman mythology, the names that are at the top of their field, most respected, etc., that people HERE might have heard of.
And, yes, obviously there are experts in other types of mythology also… thanks for talking to me as if I were a three year old.
But then perhaps this site wasn’t the appropriate place to ask. I was just wondering if any names had made it to people’s consciousness on a board full of people hyped as being less ignorant than average but not as a specialty board. Looks like the answer is that people may have heard of some physicists, or some archeologists, or some evolutionary biologists, but almost nobody has heard of anyone in mythology.
As a field of study, mythology falls under a variety of academic disciplines: anthropology, art history, folklore, historical linguistics, psychology, etc. My own degree is in folklore and mythology, with a specialty in Celtic mythology (so you can list me as an expert ), but as a folklorist I have next to no use for the more psychological Joseph Campbell. He is perhaps the most famous mythology expert in terms of name recognition and bookstore shelf-space inches. Some mythologists are more well-known for their contributions to theory (e.g. Claude Lévi-Strauss) and others specialize in a specific culture area (John Lindow or H.R. Ellis-Davidson, Scandinavian).
I read that as meaning that someone who teaches a class on the subject would know who the experts are, not that they would necessarily qualify as a “well-known expert” themselves.
If you’re looking ONLY for Greek or Roman myth folks, I can’t give you much help-- but if you think a linguist who’s also a practicing pagan and scholar might know a wee bit, Ceisiwr Serith’s your guy (That’s the name he publishes his pagan works under, and uses in the community). He’s a little closer to the Proto-Indo-European group, but I’d certainly go to him if I had a question I couldn’t answer with the resources available in my local university library.
If you’re just wanting a poll, I’m afraid that wasn’t much help; but if you’ve got a genuine question that you need answered, why not share it?
Here’s a clue: Just because it never occurred to you it doesn’t mean the OP was worded. I clearly asked who people thought were experts in the field of Greek and Roman mythology. I was willing to be polite and say that I could have worded it more clearly, but there’s absolutely nothing in the original post that justifies “oh, just call up some local community college teacher” and especially not “gosh, if you read a little you might realize there is more than Greek and Roman myths out there.” I was going to let it slide and try to give you an out, but you had to respond rudely… I suggest that you stick to answering questions that are asked instead of thinking up whole other nonsense questions not being asked and then try to blame the person who asked something completely different.
“Who speaks with authority, and what are they up to?”
Lecturing me on how many fields you think overlap with mythology isn’t an answer. Telling me the names of lots of dead people is not an answer. Listing a Celtic pagan occultist is not an answer. Saying you studied folklore in college is not an answer, unless you are arguing that you are a modern authority and recognized expert.
If you have some other questions you feel like answering, please start your own thread. If you have names of people alive today who are researching/writing about and being recognized as experts in some way related to Greek and Roman mythology, then by all means answer. I realize that posters here were trying to be helpful in some sort of misguided and clumsy condescending fashion, but not answering the question I asked is not helpful.
Thanks again to Johanna, who picked a modern author who writes about Greek myth.
I’m saying I hold a Ph.D. in Folklore and Mythology, and yes, I really am an expert.
I also misread the opening post. I assumed the Greco-Roman condition was a preference, not an absolute. In that vein, I’m sorry you don’t want the names of dead folks — Timothy Gantz died a year ago today, but he’s still worth reading. Gregory Nagy would qualify under your conditions. I don’t know whether Robert Bell is living or not (or, like the Dioskouroi, alternating between the two).
I posted Spretnak as the first name that leapt to mind, because I just bought her book Lost Goddesses of Ancient Greece the other week and it’s fresh in mind. But it turns out that Greek mythology is not the main focus of her academic career. She has an M.A. in English and her books are all over the place subject-wise, mainly ecology. Only one of her books is on Greek mythology. So this probably doesn’t quite match the OP’s wishes. Actually, Dr. Drake is on it.
), but as a folklorist I have next to no use for the more psychological Joseph Campbell. He is perhaps the most famous mythology expert in terms of name recognition and bookstore shelf-space inches. Some mythologists are more well-known for their contributions to theory (e.g. Claude Lévi-Strauss) and others specialize in a specific culture area (John Lindow or H.R. Ellis-Davidson, Scandinavian).