Walter Burkert was a renowned German scholar specializing in Greek mythology and religious practices. As Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Zurich, he significantly influenced the study of ancient religions through his meticulous research and academic contributions. His works, including "Greek Religion" and "Homo Necans," are considered foundational texts in the field, offering profound insights into ritualistic behaviors and mythological traditions of antiquity.
Burkert's interdisciplinary approach combined philology, anthropology, and comparative religion, establishing him as a leading authority on ancient Greek cults and their broader cultural significance. His teaching career spanned institutions in the UK and the US, where he mentored generations of scholars. Burkert's legacy endures through his rigorous analyses of sacrificial rites and the intersection of myth and ritual, which continue to shape classical studies today.
Non-Fiction Books
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Title
Year
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1
Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism
1962
2
Homo Necans
1972
3
Greek Religion
1977
4
Violent Origins
1987
5
Savage Energies
1990
6
Creation of the Sacred
1996
7
Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis
2007
Carl Newell Jackson Lectures Books
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Title
Year
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1
The Development of Greek Biography (By: Arnaldo Momigliano)
1971
2
The Making of Late Antiquity (By: Peter Brown)
1976
3
Ancient Mystery Cults
1987
4
The Roman Near East (By: Fergus Millar)
1993
5
Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante (By: Peter Dronke)
1994
6
I Have Always Loved The Holy Tongue (By: Anthony Grafton)
2011
7
Ethics After Aristotle (By: Brad Inwood)
2014
8
The Empire That Would Not Die (By: John F. Haldon)
2016
Revealing Antiquity Books
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Title
Year
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1
Unruly Eloquence (By: R. Bracht Branham)
1989
2
Greek Virginity (By: Giulia Sissa)
1990
3
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans (By: Pierre Chuvin)
1990
4
Hypatia of Alexandria (By: Maria Dzielska)
1993
5
The Craft of Zeus (By: John Scheid)
1994
6
Actors in the Audience (By: Shadi Bartsch)
1994
7
Prophets & Emperors (By: David Stone Potter)
1994
8
The Orientalizing Revolution
1995
9
Pompeii (By: Paul Zanker)
1999
10
The Invention of Jane Harrison (By: Mary Beard)
2000
11
Ruling the Later Roman Empire (By: Christopher Kelly)
2004
12
New Heroes in Antiquity (By: Christopher P. Jones)
2010
13
Spartacus (By: Aldo Schiavone)
2013
14
From Shame to Sin (By: Kyle Harper)
2013
15
Public Spectacles in Roman and Late Antique Palestine (By: Zeev Weiss)
2014
16
Greek Models of Mind and Self (By: Anthony A. Long)
2015
Sather Classical Lectures Books
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Title
Year
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1
Epochs of Greek and Roman Biography (By: Duane Reed Stuart)
1928
2
Phases in the Religion of Ancient Rome (By: Cyril Bailey)
1932
3
Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry (By: Arthur Leslie Wheeler)
1934
4
Roman Satire: Its Outlook on Social Life (By: J. Wight Duff)
1936
5
The Eclogues of Vergil (By: H.J. Rose)
1942
6
Pindar (By: Gilbert Norwood)
1945
7
Ovid: A Poet between Two Worlds (By: Hermann Frankel)
1945
8
The Greeks and the Irrational (By: E.R. Dodds)
1951
9
Personal Religion Among The Greeks (By: André-Jean Festugière)
1954
10
Party Politics in the Age of Caesar (By: Lily Ross Taylor)
1961
11
The Greek And Macedonian Art Of War (By: Frank E. Adcock)
1962
12
Sallust (By: Ronald Syme)
1964
13
The Ancient Romances: A Literary-Historical Account of Their Origins (By: Ben E. Perry)
1967
14
Lysias and the Corpus Lysiacum (By: K.J. Dover)
1968
15
Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures (By: Geoffrey S. Kirk)
1970
16
Change and Decline: Roman Literature in the Early Empire (By: Gordon Williams)
1978
17
Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
1980
18
The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy (By: Bernard Knox)
1983
19
The Justice of Zeus (By: Hugh Lloyd-Jones)
1983
20
Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece (By: Christian Habicht)
1985
21
The Ancient Economy (By: Moses I. Finley)
1985
22
The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science (By: G.E.R. Lloyd)
1987
23
An Archaeology of Greece: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline (By: Anthony M. Snodgrass)
1987
24
Dionysius and The History of Archaic Rome (By: Emilio Gabba)
1991
25
Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse (By: Averil Cameron)
1991
26
The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography (By: Arnaldo Momigliano, Riccardo Di Donato)
1992
27
Shame and Necessity (By: Bernard Williams)
1993
28
The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity (By: Alan Shapiro, Paul Zanker)
1995
29
Fiction as History: Nero to Julian (By: G.W. Bowersock)
1995
30
The Hidden Author: An Interpretation of Petronius's Satyricon (By: Gian Biagio Conte)
1997
31
Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy (By: Anne Pippin Burnett)
1998
32
The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault (By: Alexander Nehamas)
1998
33
Prayers in Stone: Greek Architectural Sculpture (By: Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway)
1999
34
The Poetry of Homer: Edited with an Introduction by Bruce Heiden (By: Samuel Eliot Bassett)
2003
35
Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II (By: Fergus Millar)
2006
36
Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity (By: David N. Sedley)
2007
37
Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History (By: Denis Feeney)
2008
38
Everyday Writing in the Græco-Roman East (By: Roger S. Bagnall)
2010
39
A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought (By: Michael Frede, David Sedley, A.A. Long)
2011
40
Homer the Preclassic (By: Gregory Nagy)
2012
41
Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage (By: Helene P. Foley)
2012
42
Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (By: Mary Beard)
2014
43
Greek Gods Abroad: Names, Natures, and Transformations (By: Robert C.T. Parker)
2017
44
Visual Power in Ancient Greece and Rome: Between Art and Social Reality (By: Tonio Hölscher)
2018
45
Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry (By: Philip Hardie)
2019
46
Scenes from Greek Drama (By: Bruno Snell)
2021
47
A Greek State in Formation: The Origins of Civilization in Mycenaean Pylos (By: Jack L. Davis)
2022
Walter Burkert Anthologies
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Title
Year
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1
Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum: Processions, Sacrifices, Libation, Fumigations, Dedications; Volume I