Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British
classical scholar,
linguist and
feminist. Harrison is one of the founders, with
Karl Kerenyi and
Walter Burkert, of modern studies in
Greek mythology. She applied 19th century
archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of
Greek religion in ways that have become standard. Contemporary classics scholar
Mary Beard, Harrison's biographer, has described her as "in a way ... [Britain's] first female professional 'career academic'". Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, later second wife of Sir
Francis Darwin was Jane Harrison's best friend from her student days at Newnham, and during the period from 1898 to her death in 1903.