Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ken Dowden is a British classical scholar born in 1950 in Newcastle upon Tyne, and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Birmingham. He is known for his work on Greek mythology and ancient religion, including the argument that certain myths encoded real initiation rituals for young women in ancient Greece.
Death and the Maiden: Girls' Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology, published in 1989 by Routledge, argues that specific mythological narratives were tied to real social rituals marking the transition from girlhood to adult life in ancient Greece. Dowden treats myths not as timeless poetry but as instruments encoding social expectations.
Dowden studied at Worcester College, Oxford University, before joining the University of Birmingham in 1988. At Birmingham he held several senior roles, including Head of the School of Humanities from 2000 to 2003, Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity from 2005 to 2012, and Head of the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion from 2012 to 2016.
European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, published in 2000, argues that pagan cult practices were not eliminated by Christianity but persisted and adapted across Europe well into the medieval period. Dowden grounds the argument in the realities of community ritual rather than theology.
Yes. Zeus was published in 2006 by Routledge in London and New York. It is a book-length monograph dedicated to the king of the Olympian gods, tracing Zeus's character, functions, and reception across the ancient world.
A Companion to Greek Mythology, co-edited with Niall Livingstone, was published in 2011 by Wiley-Blackwell in Oxford and Malden, Massachusetts (ISBN 978-1118785164). It is a reference volume gathering specialist contributions across the full scope of Greek mythology studies.