Comparative mythology and mythography

Jacob Bryant

1715 – 1804

Jacob Bryant was an English classical scholar and mythographer whose three-volume A New System, or An Analysis of Ancient Mythology (1774–1776) attempted to demonstrate that all ancient mythologies derived from a single corrupted tradition originating with Noah and the events of the Flood. His euhemeristic and biblical-comparative approach was highly influential in the late eighteenth century, shaping how educated readers interpreted classical myth in relation to scripture and universal religious history. While largely superseded by later comparative mythology, his work fed directly into the tradition of perennial philosophy and prisca theologia that underpins much of Western esotericism's claim to an ancient universal wisdom.