Albrecht Dieterich was a German classical philologist

Classical philology

Classical philology is the study of ancient Greek and classical Latin. Classical philology has been defined as "the careful study of the literary and philosophical texts of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds." Greek and Latin literature and civilization have traditionally been considered...

 and religious scholar who was a native of Hersfeld

Bad Hersfeld

The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld is the district seat of Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast of Kassel....

.

He studied at the Universities of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 and Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

, where at the latter he was a student of Hermann Usener

Hermann Usener

Hermann Karl Usener was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion.-Life:...

 (1834-1905), who in 1899 became Dieterich's father-in-law. In 1888 he earned his doctorate, and three years later received his habilitation in Marburg with a dissertation on Orphism

Orphism (religion)

Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices in the ancient Greek and the Hellenistic world, as well as by the Thracians, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into Hades and returned...

. Afterwards he travelled to Italy and Greece for research purposes.

In 1895 he returned to Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

 as an associate professor, and two years later succeeded Eduard Schwartz

Eduard Schwartz

Eduard Schwartz was a German classical philologist.Born in Kiel, he studied under Hermann Usener, Mommsen and Wilamovitz-Moellendorf. Schwartz taught in at least half a dozen universities culminating with a post in Munich. He published numerous articles and works in the area of Greek and Roman...

 (1858-1940) as chair of classical philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 at the University of Giessen

University of Giessen

The University of Giessen is officially called the Justus Liebig University Giessen after its most famous faculty member, Justus von Liebig, the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertiliser.-History:The University of Gießen is among the oldest institutions of...

. In 1903 he was a full professor at the University of Heidelberg.

Much of Dieterich's work involved research of traditional beliefs, mythology

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

 and religion of the Greco-Roman world

Greco-Roman world

The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture,...

. He was the author of an influential work titled Abraxas: Studien zur Religionsgeschichte des spätern Altertums, which was based on a magical papyri

Greek magical papyri

The Greek Magical Papyri is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD...

 housed at the Leyden Museum. In 1903 he published Eine Mithrasliturgie, in which he proposes that lines 475 - 834 of the Paris Magical Papyrus contained the official liturgy of the Mithras Cult. His theory was met with skepticism and criticized by several scholars in regards to the Mithraic origin of the liturgy. Other significant works by Dieterich include:

• Nekyia
  Nekyia
  In ancient Greek cult-practice and literature, a nekyia is a "rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future," i.e., necromancy. A nekyia is not necessarily the same thing as a katabasis...
  
  : Beiträge zur Erklärung der neuentdeckten Petrusapokalypse, (1883)
• Die Grabschrift des Aberkios, (1896)
• Mutter Erde, (1905)
• Kleine Schriften, (1911)