Dannu Joachim Hütwohl received his PhD in Classics from The Ohio State University in 2020. He also has degrees from the University of New Mexico (BA; MA). He has spent the last two years working on his friend’s ranch in southern New Mexico on hiatus from the Academy.
Dannu’s dissertation explores myths from the eastern Mediterranean about gods involved in sacrifice, as either performers or victims of the rite. He uses the historical dynamics of cultural exchange to better understand how the motif of divine sacrifice was propagated throughout the ancient Mediterranean and adapted by its diverse cultures. Dannu employs an interdisciplinary approach and analyzes texts in Akkadian, Hebrew, Phoenician, Greek, and Latin. He is an avid explorer of ancient languages and linguistics and has studied Hittite, Sanskrit, Sumerian, and Linear B, among others. Dannu also researches Mystery cults, cosmology, and philosophy and loves to read Homer and Vergil. He wrote his Masters thesis on the connections between the Bacchic and Orphic mysteries and the dialogues of Plato. Dannu has taught classes on the representation of death and the afterlife in the ancient world, as well as love goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean. He is currently working on two book projects.
Areas: Ritual and Sacrifice, Plato, Mystery cults, Phoenician and Near Eastern studies, Historical Linguistics
