author
Lewis Richard Farnell
1856–1934
A pioneering scholar of Greek religion, archaeology, and myth, he helped shape how the ancient world was studied at Oxford. His books blend close reading with a broad curiosity about ritual, belief, and the lives behind old stories.
3 Audiobooks
Greece and Babylon : A comparative sketch of Mesopotamian, Anatolian and Hellenic religions
by Lewis Richard Farnell
The evolution of religion : An anthropological study
by Lewis Richard Farnell
Outline-history of Greek religion
by Lewis Richard Farnell
About the author
Born in Salisbury in 1856, Lewis Richard Farnell studied at the City of London School and then at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a first in Literae Humaniores. He became a fellow of Exeter in 1880 and later served as rector of the college, building a long academic life at Oxford.
Farnell is best remembered as a classical scholar and historian of religion. His work on Greek cults and hero worship made him an important early interpreter of ancient religion, bringing together literary evidence, archaeology, and comparative ideas in ways that influenced later scholarship.
He was also a prominent university figure, serving as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford from 1920 to 1923, and he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He died in Oxford in 1934, leaving behind a body of work that still interests readers of classics, mythology, and the history of religion.