Tim Whitmarsh

Tim Whitmarsh is the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge and holds honorary roles at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the Universities of Pretoria and Exeter. His research focuses on the intersection of Greek literature with cultural hybridity, particularly exploring the origins of the ancient Greek novel and its connections to Persian, Egyptian, and Jewish literary traditions. He is the author of seven books, including Dirty Love: The Genealogy of the Ancient Greek Novel (2018) and Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World, which has been translated into multiple languages. Whitmarsh has written over 70 academic articles and frequently contributes to media outlets such as The Guardian and BBC radio and TV. His work challenges conventional narratives of Greek literary purity, emphasizing transgressive and multicultural influences in ancient texts.