'For love of an idea': Jane Ellen Harrison, heretic and humanist

Abstract

Jane Ellen Harrison, British classicist at the turn of the century, was a pioneering scholar in her field, one of the first to apply new anthropological and psychological theories to the study of ancient Greek culture. Her reputation was diminished, however, by criticisms of the 'female' qualities of her scholarship. It was not only her scholarship that angered her critics; Harrison's feminism, pacifism, and atheism made her a particular target for the outrage of conservative male colleagues. This paper examines the criticisms and motives of two of her critics: William Ridgeway and Montague Rhodes James.