Walter Burkert

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Walter Burkert
Born	(1931-02-02)2 February 1931 Neuendettelsau, Germany
Died	11 March 2015(2015-03-11) (aged 84) Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	German
Awards	Balzan Prize (1990) Sigmund Freud Prize (2003) Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2008)
Academic background
Alma mater	Erlangen University Munich University
Academic work
Discipline	Classics
Sub-discipline	Ancient Greek Religion
Institutions	TU Berlin University of Zurich
Notable works	Homo Necans (1972)

Walter Burkert (German: [ˈbʊɐ̯kɐt]; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult.

A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of students of religion since the 1960s, combining in the modern way the findings of archaeology and epigraphy with the work of poets, historians, and philosophers. He was a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1][2]

He published books on the balance between lore and science among the followers of Pythagoras, and more extensively on ritual and archaic cult survival, on the ritual killing at the heart of religion, on mystery religions, and on the reception in the Hellenic world of Near Eastern and Persian culture, which sets Greek religion in its wider Aegean and Near Eastern context.