Jane Ellen Harrison
Jane Ellen Harrison (
September 9,
1850–
April 5,
1928) was a ground-breaking
British classical scholar,
linguist and
feminist. Harrison is one of the founders, with
Karl Kerenyi and
Walter Burkert, of modern studies in
Greek mythology. She applied
19th century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of
Greek religion in ways that have become standard.
Harrison was born in
Yorkshire,
England and first received tutalage under family
governesses in subjects such as the many languages Harrison learned: initially German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, later expanded to about sixteen languages, including Russian. Harrison spent most of her professional life at
Newnham, the progressive, recently-established college for women at
Cambridge. She knew
Edward Burne-Jones and
Walter Pater, and moved in the
Bloomsbury group, with
Virginia Woolf (who was one of Harrison's close friends and looked to her as a mentor),
Lytton Strachey,
Clive Bell and
Walter Fry. With
Gilbert Murray,
F. M. Cornford, and
A. B. Cook, she was inspired to apply
anthropology and
ethnography to the study of classical art and ritual. Harrison and this later group of people have become known as
Cambridge Ritualists.
Suffragette
Harrison was, at least
ideologically, a moderate
suffragette of the early
feminist movement. Rather than support women's
suffrage by
protesting, Harrison applied her scholarship in
anthropology to defend women's right to vote. In responding to an
anti-suffragist critic, Harrison demonstrates this
moderate ideology: "[The Women's Movement] is not an attempt to arrogate man's prerogative of manhood; it is not even an attempt to assert and emphasize women's privilege of womanhood; it is simply the demand that in the life of woman, as in the life of man, space and liberty shall be found for a thing bigger than either manhood or womanhood -- for humanity." (84-85,
Alpha and Omega) To this end, Harrison's motto was
homo sum; humani nihil mihi alienum est ("I am a human being; nothing that is human do I account alien.")
Harrison began formal study at
Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she gained a
Certificate, and, in 1874, continued her studies in
the classics at
Cambridge University's
Newnham College. Her early work earned Harrison two honorary doctorates, an
LLD from
University of Aberdeen in 1895 and
DLitt from
Durham College in 1897. This recognition offorded Harrison the opportunity to return to
Newnham College as a
lecturer in 1898, and her position was renewed continuously until Harrison retired in 1922.
Early Work
In her time, Harrison was renowned for her public lectures on
Greek art and for her unconventional and outspoken views. Her lectures on Greek art, usually given to wealthy, predominantly female audiences, were immensely popular in the
1880s, and her unorthodox fascination with
pagan folk rituals often stirred up gossip. Harrison was emancipated intellectually by a reading of
David Friedrich Strauss's historical criticism of the life of
Jesus, and
Johann Jakob Bachofen's
Mutterrecht (1861), the seminal analysis of
matriarchy in
antiquity. Harrison's first monograph, in
1882, drew on the thesis that both
Homer's
Odyssey and motifs of the Greek vase-painters were drawing upon similar deep sources for mythology, the opinion that had not been common in earlier classical archaeology, that the repertory of vase-painters offereed some unusual commentaries on myth and ritual.
Cultural Evolution (or Social Darwinism)
Harrison alluded to and commented on the cultural applications of
Charles Darwin's work. Harrison and her generation depended upon Darwin for some new themes of
cultural evolution, especially his 1871 work,
Primitive Culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art, and custom. After a
socially Darwinian analysis of the
origins of religion, Harrison admitted that religions are anti-intellectual and
dogmatic, yet she defended the cultural necessity of religion. In her essay
The Influence of Darwinism on the Study of Religion (circa 1915), Harrison concluded: "Every dogma religion has hitherto produced is probably false, but for all that the religious or mystical spirit may be the only way of apprehending some things, and these of enormous importance. It may also be that the contents of this mystical apprehension cannot be put into language without being falsified and misstated, that they have rather to be felt and lived than uttered and intellectually analyzed; yet they are somehow true and necessary to life." (177,
Alpha and Omega)
World War I marked a deep break in Harrison's life. Harrison never visited Italy or
Greece after the war, she mostly wrote revisions or synopses of previous publishings, and
pacifist leanings isolated her. Upon retiring (in 1922), Harrison briefly lived in
Paris, but she returned to
London when her health began to fail.
Greek Topics
Books on the anthropological search for the origins of Greek religion and mythology, include:
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903)
Heresy and Humanity (1911)
Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (1912, revised 1927)
Ancient Art and Ritual (1912+)
Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1921)
Essays and Reflections
Alpha and Omega (1915)
Reminiscences of a Student's Life (1925)
*
Klaus-Gunther Wesseling's brief biography of Harrison, densely packed with information; extensive references (German)
*
Newnham College Archives of Jane Ellen Harrison holds her personal correspondence; brief biography
*
Jane Harrison by Theo van Rysselberghe at the NPG
*
Free ebook of Jane Ellen Harrison at
Project Gutenberg*
Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison, 1912 - online copy at the University of Chicago Library
*Harrison, Jane Ellen.
Alpha and Omega. AMS Press: New York, 1973. (ISBN 0404567533)
*Harrison, Jane Ellen.
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903) 1991 (Princeton: Princeton University Press Mythos series). The
Introduction by Robert Ackerman is the best easily available brief overview of Harrison's career.
*Peacock, Sandra J.
Jane Ellen Harrison: The Mask and the Self. Halliday Lithograph Corp.: West Hanover, MA. 1988. (ISBN 0300041284)
*Robinson, Annabel.
The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (ISBN 019924233X). The first substantial biography, with extensive quotes from personal letters.
*Stewart, Jessie G.
Jane Ellen Harrison: a Portrait from Letters 1959. A memoir based on her voluminous correspondence with
Gilbert Murray.
