Sarah Iles Johnston
Introduction
Sarah Iles Johnston, born on October 25, 1957, in Bowling Green, Ohio, is a leading scholar in ancient Greek mythology and religion. She is a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Religion at Ohio State University, where she has been a faculty member since 1988.
Johnston’s academic background includes a B.S. in Journalism (1979) and a B.A. in Classics (1980) from the University of Kansas. She later earned her M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1987) in Classics from Cornell University. Over the years, she has held positions at Princeton University and played a pivotal role in religious studies and classics at Ohio State. From 2006 to 2010, she served as the founding director of the university’s Center for the Study of Religion.
Area of Expertise
Johnston specializes in the study of ancient Mediterranean religions, Greek mythology, and the relationship between myth and belief. Her research examines how narratives shape religious thought, drawing from disciplines like folklore studies, narratology, media studies, and the social sciences. She also explores cosmogonies and divine narratives in both Greek and Northwest Semitic traditions, while her interests extend to archaic Greek poetry and modern supernatural horror fiction.
Books & Publications
Sarah Iles Johnston has made significant contributions to mythology and religious studies through her extensive writing and editorial work. Her books delve into themes of myth, divination, and the afterlife, with notable works like The Story of Myth (2018), which examines how narratives reinforce belief in gods and heroes, and Ancient Greek Divination (2008), a comprehensive look at the ways Greeks sought guidance from the divine.
She has also explored death and the supernatural in Restless Dead (1999), analyzed afterlife beliefs in Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (2007, co-authored with Fritz Graf), and provided a scholarly study of Hekate in Hekate Soteira (1990). More recently, she has written Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers (2023), her first book aimed at a general audience.
Johnston’s editorial work includes Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (2004) and Ancient Religions (2007), along with co-editing Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) with Peter T. Struck. Her recent articles explore connections between mythology and modern supernatural horror fiction, and she is currently working on Arachne’s Threads: Why Myths Mattered to the Greeks and Still Matter Now.
Research & Contributions
Sarah Iles Johnston’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach to ancient Greek mythology and religion, focusing on how narratives shape and sustain belief systems. She combines narratology, folklore studies, and media analysis to examine myths as compelling stories that reinforce religious faith. In The Story of Myth, she explores how these narratives create immersive worlds that connect audiences to gods and heroes.
Her work also delves into Greek perceptions of the dead and their interactions with the living, as well as the role of divination in seeking divine guidance. She has contributed significantly to the study of Hekate, particularly in the Chaldean Oracles, and has analyzed ancient Greek texts to uncover their religious and philosophical insights.
Beyond mythology, Johnston investigates how ancient myths continue to influence modern supernatural horror fiction. As the founding director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Ohio State University, she has been instrumental in advancing the academic study of religion and has received numerous fellowships and awards for her contributions.
Awards & Recognitions
Sarah Iles Johnston has been widely recognized for her contributions to the study of mythology and religion through numerous prestigious fellowships and awards. She has been honored with fellowships from institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study, the American Council of Learned Societies, and Fondation Hardt. She has also held senior research positions at Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and the Universität Göttingen.
Her achievements include being named the Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of Religion at Ohio State University in 2011 and later receiving the title of College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Religion in 2017. In 2024, she expanded her public engagement by delivering a TEDx talk titled Why Supernatural Horror Fiction Might Make You Think about God, further bridging the gap between academic research and broader audiences.
Social Media Profiles
Sarah Iles Johnston is active on social media, where she shares her insights and engages with the academic community and the general public. You can follow her on:
