Albrecht Dieterich - Imagines philologorum

Albrecht Dieterich (2 May 1866 – 6 May 1908) was a German

classical philologist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

and scholar of religion born in Hersfeld.

Academic background

He studied at the Universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, where at the latter he was a student of

Hermann Usener Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion. Life Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg, ...

(1834-1905), who in 1899 became Dieterich's father-in-law. In 1888 he earned his doctorate, and three years later received his habilitation in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

with a dissertation on Orphism. Afterwards he traveled to Italy and Greece for research purposes. Dieterich grab

In 1895 he returned to

as an associate professor, and two years later succeeded

Eduard Schwartz Eduard Schwartz (22 August 1858 – 13 February 1940) was a German classical philologist. Born in Kiel, he studied under Hermann Sauppe in Göttingen, under Hermann Usener and Franz Bücheler in Bonn, under Theodor Mommsen in Berlin and under Ul ...

(1858-1940) as chair of classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

. In 1903 he was a full professor at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

Works

Much of Dieterich's work involved research of traditional beliefs,

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

and religion of the Greco-Roman world. He was the author of an influential work titled "''Abraxas: Studien zur Religionsgeschichte des spätern Altertums''", a study based on a

magical papyri The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: ''Papyri Graecae Magicae'', abbreviated ''PGM'') is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each con ...

that was housed at the

Leyden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

Museum. In 1903 he published "''Eine Mithrasliturgie''", in which he proposes that lines 475 – 834 of the Paris Magical Papyrus contained the official liturgy of the Mithras Cult. His theory was met with skepticism and criticized by several scholars in regards to the

Mithraic Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (''yazata'') Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linke ...

origin of the liturgy. Other significant works by Dieterich include: * ''Nekyia: Beiträge zur Erklärung der neuentdeckten Petrusapokalypse'', (1893) –

Nekyia In ancient Greek cult-practice and literature, a ''nekyia'' or ''nekya'' ( grc, νέκυια, νεκυία; νεκύα ) is a "rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future," i.e., necromancy. A ''nekyia'' is not necessarily ...

; contributions to the explanation of the newly revealed

Apocalypse of Peter The Apocalypse of Peter (or Revelation of Peter) is an early Christian text of the 2nd century and an example of apocalyptic literature with Hellenistic overtones. It is not included in the standard canon of the New Testament, but is mentioned i ...

. * ''Die Grabschrift des Aberkios'', (1896) – The grave inscriptions of Aberkios * ''Mutter Erde'', (1905) – Mother Earth. * ''Kleine Schriften'', (1911) – Smaller works.

Notes

References

* Stephan A. Hoeller
The gnostic Jung and The Seven Sermons to the dead
Quest Books, 1982, p. 92. * "This article incorporates text from an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia"; which include
''Dieterich, Albrecht''
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, , S. 669 f.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dieterich, Albrecht 1866 births 1908 deaths People from Bad Hersfeld People from the Electorate of Hesse German classical philologists University of Giessen faculty Heidelberg University faculty