Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (12 February 1845, in Göttingen – 9 March 1923, in Dresden) was a German classical scholar. He specialized in studies of Greek and Roman mythology. He received his education at the Universities of Göttingen and Leipzig, obtaining his PhD in 1868. While at Leipzig, from encouragement by Friedrich Ritschl, he along with fellow students Wilhelm Wisser, Richard Arnold and Friedrich Nietzsche, formed a student philological association in December 1865. Since 1871 he taught classes at the Fürstenschule in Meissen, and from 1882, served as vice-principal at the gymnasium in Wurzen. In 1894, he was appointed school rector. After his retirement in 1905 he lived and worked in Dresden. During his career, he travelled extensively in Europe, his research trips taking him to Italy, France, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Greece and Asia Minor. The economist Wilhelm Georg Friedrich Roscher (1817–1894) was his father.

Written works

He is best known for his lexicon, the Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie ("Detailed dictionary of Greek and Roman mythology", 1884–1937; 6 volumes with 4 supplementary volumes, the dictionary being completed by Konrat Ziegler). He also published Neue Omphalosstudien: Ein archäologischer Beitrag zur vergleichenden Religionswissenschaft (1915), an archaeological study of the Omphalos myth. Other significant works by Roscher are: