Dirk Obbink

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Dirk Obbink (* 1957 in Lincoln , Nebraska ) is an American Graecist , papyrologist and lecturer in Papyrology and Greek literature at the University of Oxford and Professor in Papyrology at the University of Michigan .

Life

Dirk Obbink, whose ancestors immigrated to the USA from the Dutch-speaking area, first studied English (up to BA ), then classical philology and papyrology at the University of Nebraska (up to MA ). At Stanford University he received his Ph. D. in 1986 with a dissertation on the treatise On the Piety of the Greek Philosopher Philodem . After an assistant professorship at Columbia University in New York , he was appointed lecturer in Papyrology and Greek literature in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University and head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project in 1995 . At the same time he has been Ludwig Koenen Collegiate Professor in Papyrology at the University of Michigan since 2003 .

In 2001 Obbink received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on the Oxyrhynchus and Herculaneum papyri . On May 16, 2007, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven awarded him an honorary doctorate. In addition to a country house near Oxford, Obbink has also owned a large estate in Waco, Texas, Cottonland Castle , built in the 19th century, since 2014 .

Focus of work

Obbink has established himself as one of the leading papyrologists in the field of Greek philology through an exemplary and revolutionary edition of the work of the philosopher Philodem On Piety and is one of the collaborators of the Philodemus Project . In this edition he has convincingly combined the largely charred and therefore extremely difficult to decipher and reconstruct papyrus rolls from Herculaneum into a whole. In Oxford he worked on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri until 2016 (see below). Since 1999 he has been using multi-spectral imaging (MSI) technology to decipher papyri . From the work on the Philodem Edition, he devoted further studies to Hellenistic philosophy. Obbink also deals with other difficult papyri such as the Derveni papyrus , the Artemidor papyrus and those from the fields of ancient magic and astrology . Most recently, Obbink presented a critical text edition of the astrological poem of Anubion .

In 2014 he identified fragments of two previously unknown poems by Sapphos , including the so-called "brother poem", in which Sappho sings about the return of her older brother Charaxos and also mentions her younger brother Larichos.

accusations

In 2016, Obbink's work as head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project was unexpectedly terminated after the Egypt Exploration Society (EES), owner of the collection, accused him of irregularities. In 2019, it became known that Obbink was accused of illegally selling at least 13 precious early Christian papyri from the collection to the American company Hobby Lobby , which gave 11 of the pieces to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. EES officials claim to be in possession of a 2013 sales contract for four of the papyri in question by Obbink with Hobby Lobby , owned by Evangelical Christians. Obbink falsely presented himself to the buyers as the owner of the papyri. A total of around 120 papyri have disappeared, along with the corresponding catalog entries.

In addition, Obbink was accused of deliberately dating papyri too early to increase their sales value; the Sappho fragments presented by him in 2014 (see above), in turn, were of unclear origin and therefore possibly illegally acquired on the black market. The Museum of the Bible has now returned the texts acquired in 2013 to the EES. Obbink was deprived of access to the papyrological collections at Oxford in June 2019 pending clarification of the allegations he denies.

Obbink stated in October 2019 that the sales contract was fake and that he was the victim of intrigue. He was arrested by the British police in March 2020, but after an interrogation he was initially released from custody under certain conditions. The police investigation continues.

Fonts

Critical Editions

Editorships

  • (Ed., With Christopher A. Faraone ): Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford University Press, 1991). Review of: Simon Pulleyn, in: The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 42.1 (1992), pp. 89-90; by: Gregory W. Dickerson, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 04/02/08 [5]
  • (Ed.): Philodemus and Poetry: Poetic Theory and Practice in Lucretius, Philodemus, and Horace . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-508815-8 . Review by: Lee T. Pearcy, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 97.2.12 [6]
  • (Ed., With Roger S. Bagnall ): Columbia Papyri X (American Studies in Papyrology, 34). Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996. ISBN 0-7885-0275-1 . Review by: Kirsti Copeland, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 97.6.15 [7]
  • (Ed., With Mary Depew): Matrices of Genre. Authors, Canons and Society , Cambridge Mass. 2000. Google Books [8] . Review by: Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2001-09-07 [9]
  • (Ed., With John T. Fitzgerald and Glenn Stanfield Holland): Philodemus and the New Testament world (Novum Testamentum. Supplements 111), Leiden: Brill 2004, ISBN 9-004-11460-2 , Google books [10]

items

  • 'What all men believe - must be true': Common conceptions and consensio omnium in Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophy , in: Julia Annas (ed.): Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy , Vol. 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1992, pp. 193-231, ISBN 0-198-24047-3 , Google Books [11]
  • A Quotation of the Derveni Papyrus in Philodemus' On Piety , in: Cronache Ercolanesi, 24, 1994, 111-35.
  • Philodemus' De pietate : Argument, Organization and Authorship , in: Papyrologica 4, 1994, 203-231
  • The Stoic Sage in the Cosmic City , in: Katerian Ierodiakonu (Ed.), Topics in Stoic Philosophy , Clarendon, Oxford 1999, pp. 178-127
  • 'All Gods are true' in Epicurus , in: Dorothea Frede , André Laks (eds.): Traditions of theology: studies in Hellenistic theology, its background and aftermath (Philosophia antiqua, vol. 89), Leiden: Brill 2002, p. 183-222, ISBN 9-004-12264-8 , Google Books [12]
  • Editing Classical Commentary , abstract, American Philological Association, 139th Annual Meeting, Chicago, January 3-6, 2008

Translations

  • Marcello Gigante : Philodemus in Italy: The Books from Herculaneum . Translated by Dirk Obbink. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. ISBN 0-472-10569-8 , Google Books: [13] . Review by: Alan C. Mitchell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 96.9.24 [14]

literature

Web links

  • Page at the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University [17]
  • Noah Adams: Secrets of Ancient Papyrus Fragments Revealed (Interview with Obbink, Audio) [18]
  • Daniel Engber: How To Read a Dirty Papyrus , in: slate.com, April 18, 2005 [19]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Brethren Poem": English translation ; German translation .
  2. ↑ Lost Poems of Greek Poetess Sappho Found on thearchaeologynewsnetwork.
  3. ↑ [1] EES press release.
personal data
SURNAME Obbink, Dirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Greek scholar and papyrologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Lincoln, Nebraska , USA