Robert Christopher Towneley Parker, FBA (born 19 October 1950) is a British

ancient historian Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...

, specialising in ancient Greek religion and Greek epigraphy. Robert Parker was educated at

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , h ...

and at New College, Oxford under Geoffrey de Ste Croix. From 1996 until his retirement in 2016 he was the

Wykeham Professor of Ancient History The University of Oxford has three statutory professorships named after William of Wykeham, who founded New College. Logic The Wykeham Professorship in Logic was established in 1859, although it was not known as the Wykeham chair until later. I ...

at New College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. Before that, from 1976–96, he was Tutor in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature at

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, w ...

, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 1998. He is also a Foreign Member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

, an Officier of the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

in France, and a Member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

. In 2013 he was the 99th Sather Professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

.Berkeley Classics faculty website
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Select Works

Books

* ''Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek religion''. Oxford, 1983. * ''Athenian Religion: A History''. Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1996. * ''Polytheism and Society at Athens''. Oxford, 2005.
''On Greek Religion''
Ithaca, NY, 2011. .

Edited works

* (ed. with

Peter Derow Peter Sidney Derow (11 April 1944 – 9 December 2006) was Hody Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Wadham College, Oxford and University Lecturer in Ancient History from 1977 to 2006. As a scholar he was most noted for his work on Hellenist ...

) ''Herodotus and His World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest''. Oxford: 2003. * (ed. with J. Ma and N. Papazarkadas) ''Interpreting the Athenian empire''. London, 2009. * (ed. with Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood) ''Athenian myths and festivals: aglauros, erechtheus, plynteria, panathenaia, dionysia''. New York, NY, 2011. * (ed.) ''Personal Names in Ancient Anatolia'' Oxford University Press 2013.

Articles and chapters

'The Origins of Pronoia: A Mystery'
in ''Apodosis: essays presented to Dr W.W. Cruickshank to mark his 80th birthday'', 1992. * ‘Early Orphism’ in A. Powell ed., ''The Greek World''. London, 1995: 483-510. * ‘Pleasing Thighs: Reciprocity in Greek Religion’ in Gill, C., N. Postlethwaite, & R. Seaford eds., ''Reciprocity in Ancient Greece''. Oxford, 1998: 105-25. * ‘Greek states and Greek oracles’ in Cartledge, P.A. & F.D. Harvey eds., ''Crux : essays presented to G. E. M. de Ste. Croix on his 75th birthday''. History of Political Thought 6. Exeter, 1985. Republished in R.G.A. Buxton ed., ''Oxford Readings in Greek Religion''. Oxford, 2000: 76-108.
'The Problem of the Greek Cult Epithet'
in ''Opuscula Atheniensia'' 28 (2003).
'New 'Panhellenic' Festivals in Hellenistic Greece'
in Schlesier, R. & U. Zellman (eds), ''Mobility and Travel in the Mediterranean from Antiquity to the Middle Ages'', Münster 2004.
'What are Sacred Laws?'
in Harris, E.M. & L. Rubinstein (eds) ''The Law and the Courts in Ancient Greece'', Duckworth 2004.
'A New Funerary Gold Leaf from Pherae'
''Archeologiki Efimeris'', 2004.
'Sale of a Priesthood on Chios'
in ''Chiakon Simposion is mnimin W.G. Forrest'', Eliniki Epigrafiki Eteria, Athens, 2006.
'Patroioi theoi: The Cults of Sub-groups and Identity in the Greek World'
in Rasmussen, A.H. & S.W. (eds), ''Religion and Society: Rituals, Resources and Identity in the Ancient Graeco-Roman World'', Rome 2008.
'Tis ho thuon?'
in Lydie Bodiou, Véronique Mehl, Jacques Oulhen, Francis Prost et Jérôme Wilgaux (eds.) ''Chemin faisant. Mythes, cultes et société en Grèce ancienne. Mélanges en l’honneur de Pierre Brulé'', 2009.
'Subjection, Synoecism, and Religious Life'
in Funke, P & N. Luraghi (eds), ''The Politics of Ethnicity and the Crisis of the Peloponnesian League'', Harvard University Press 2009. * ‘A Funerary Foundation from Hellenistic Lycia’, ''Chiron'', 40 (2010): 103-120.
'Epigraphy and Greek Religion'
in ''Epigraphy and the Historical Sciences''. British Academy, 2012.
'Commentary on ''Journal of Cognitive Historiography'', Issue 1'
JCH 1.2 (2014) 186-192.
'The Lot Oracle at Dodona'
''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', 194 (2015), 111-114.

References

External links

Full bibliography of Robert Parker's articles and books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Robert 1950 births Living people People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of New College, Oxford Fellows of New College, Oxford Wykeham Professors of Ancient History British classical scholars Scholars of ancient Greek history Fellows of the British Academy