Richard Seaford is emeritus professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Exeter. His work on Athenian tragedy and religion has led him to investigate the historical conditions for the radical development of Greek culture in the sixth century BC (sometimes called the origin of European culture), and to argue that a crucial factor in this development was money: the advanced Greek polis of this period was the first society in history that we know to have been thoroughly monetised. Money and the Early Greek Mind. Homer, Tragedy, Philosophy (2004) explores the socio-historical conditions that made this first monetisation possible as well as its profound cultural consequences, notably the invention of ‘philosophy’ and of drama. His other books include Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-state (1994) and Dionysos (2006). In
2009 he was Honorary President of the UK Classical Association. His latest book The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and Ancient India: A Historical Comparison (Cambridge University Press, 2020).