Fritz Graf (philologist)

Fritz Graf (born May 12, 1944 in Amriswil ) is a Swiss classical philologist .

Fritz Graf received his doctorate from the University of Zurich under Walter Burkert in 1971 and qualified as a professor in 1981. From 1987 to 1999 he taught as professor of Latin philology at the University of Basel and from 1999 at Princeton . He is currently Professor of Greek and Latin and Director of Epigraphy at the Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at Ohio State University in Columbus . He is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute ; he was a member of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma , Fellow of the Humanities Center at Cornell University and Guggenheim Fellow.

Graf is particularly concerned with the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world; The focus is on cults, mythology and magic. He wrote introductory works on Greek mythology ( Greek mythology , 1985) and ancient magic ( closeness to God and magic of damage. Magic in Greco-Roman antiquity , 1996), both of which have been translated into several languages. One center of his work are local cults and festivals (especially in Northern Ionian Cults , 1985, and in many essays), another is the ancient mystery cults ( Eleusis and the Orphic Poetry , 1974; Ritual Texts for the Afterlife. Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets , 2007, together with his wife Sarah Iles Johnston ). In addition, there are edited works, in particular on the history of research ( Karl Meuli , Johann Jakob Bachofen , Jacob Burckhardt ) and on the myth in Rome, which questions the alleged lack of myth in Roman culture ( Myth in Mythenlos Gesellschaft , 1993). In German-speaking countries he is also known as the editor of the Introduction to Latin Philology (1997, ISBN 3-519-07434-6 ).

Fonts (selection)

• Greek Mythology: An Introduction . Düsseldorf and Zurich 1999.
• One generation after Burkert and Girard . In: Christopher A. Faraone, Fred Naiden (Eds.): Greek and Roman Animal Sacrifice: Ancient Victims, Modern Observers. Cambridge 2012. pp. 32-52.
• Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets . (With Sarah Iles Johnston) 2007.
• Roman Festivals in the Greek East . Cambridge University Press 2015.

Web links

• Publications by and about Fritz Graf (philologist) in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Fritz Graf in the catalog of the German National Library
• Page at the Department of Classics at Ohio State University
• CV with list of publications