author
Jacob Bryant
1715–1804
An eighteenth-century English scholar and mythographer, he spent decades chasing links between ancient myths, biblical history, and the classical world. Best known for his ambitious studies of mythology, he wrote with the curiosity of an antiquarian and the confidence of a grand theorist.
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About the author
Born in Plymouth in 1715, Jacob Bryant was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. He later became tutor to the Duke of Marlborough and went on to hold a post connected with the Board of Ordnance, which gave him the freedom to devote much of his life to scholarship.
Bryant is chiefly remembered for A New System, or an Analysis of Ancient Mythology (published in the 1770s), a large and imaginative attempt to trace the myths of many cultures back to a single ancient source. He also wrote on classical history, biblical questions, and the site of ancient Troy, showing a lifelong fascination with the way old stories, languages, and traditions fit together.
Though many of his theories did not stand the test of time, his work captures the bold, wide-ranging spirit of eighteenth-century learning. He died in 1804, leaving behind a body of writing that still interests readers drawn to mythology, antiquarian scholarship, and the history of ideas.