Cambridge Ritualists

The Cambridge Ritualists were a recognised group of classical scholars, mostly in Cambridge, England, including Jane Ellen Harrison, F.M. Cornford, Gilbert Murray (actually from the University of Oxford), A. B. Cook, George Thomson, and others. They earned this title because of their shared interest in ritual, specifically their attempts to explain myth and early forms of classical drama as originating in ritual, mainly the ritual seasonal killings of eniautos daimon, or the Year-King.[1] They are also sometimes referred to as the myth and ritual school, or as the Classical Anthropologists.[2]

  1. ^ R Fraser ed., The Golden Bough (Oxford 2009) p. 651
  2. ^ "Folklore Forum" (PDF). scholarworks.iu.edu.