Martin P. Nilsson

Martin Persson Nilsson ( Stoby, Kristianstad County, 12 July 1874 – Lund, 7 April 1967) was a Swedish philologist, mythographer, and a scholar of the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman religious systems. In his studies he combined literary evidence with archaeological evidence, linking historic and prehistoric evidence for the evolution of the Greek mythological cycles.

Biography

Beginning in 1900 as a tutor at the University of Lund, he was appointed Secretary to the Swedish Archaeological Commission working in Rhodes, in 1905. In 1909 he was appointed Professor of Ancient Greek, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund. Later, Nilsson was Secretary of the Royal Society of Letters in Lund and an Associate of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, in Stockholm. In 1924 he was made a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1939 and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Works

Nilsson's best-known work in German is ' () in the ' (), which went through several editions. Nilsson had previously published it in Swedish under the title ' (1922). In English his ''Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and Its Survival in Greek Religion'' is more often quoted. Other important works include:
*''Primitive Time-Reckoning; A Study in the Origins and First Development of the Art of Counting Time Among the Primitive and Early Culture Peoples'' (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup) 1920
*''The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology'' (Berkeley: University of California Press) 1932
On-line text
This work had its origins in the Sather Classical Lectures
*''Homer and Mycenae'' (London: Methuen) 1933
*''Primitive Religion'' 1934
*"Early Orphism and Kindred Religious Movements" ''Harvard Theological Review'' 28 (1935):180-230
*''The Age of the Early Greek Tyrants'' (Belfast) 1936 (The Dill Memorial Lecture)
*''Greek Popular Religion'' (New York: Cat) 1940


*
**Translated as ''Greek Piety'' (Norton/Oxford University Press) 1969
**Translated as
*''Greek Folk Religion''. Reprinted with a foreword by Arthur Darby Nock, 1972
*
**Translated as
*''Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and Its Survival in Greek Religion'' (Lund: Gleerup); revised 2nd ed. 1950
*''The Bacchic Mysteries in Italy''
**See also "The Bacchic Mysteries in the Roman Age" ''Harvard Theological Review'' 46 (1953):175-202
*''Cults, Myths, Oracles, and Politics in Ancient Greece'' (Studies in Mediterranean Archeology)
*''The Historical Hellenistic Background of the New Testament'' (The Bedell Lecture, Kenyon College)

References

Sources

*"Martin P. Nilsson: In Memoriam" ''The Harvard Theological Review'' 60.4 (October 1967), p. 373.

Further reading

* Einar Gjerstad, ''Martin P. Nilsson in memoriam.'' (Lund: Gleerup) 1968. (With Erik Johan Knudtzon et al., ''Bibliographie Martin P. Nilsson.'')
*John Granlund, "Martin Persson Nilsson (1874–1967)" 'in Dag Strömbäck (ed.) ''Leading folklorists of the North'' (Oslo) 1971:135–170.

External links

About the Bookplate of Martin P. Nilsson

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Martin P.
1874 births
1967 deaths
Swedish classical scholars
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
Members of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy
International members of the American Philosophical Society