Frank Cole Babbitt

Frank Cole Babbitt (born June 4, 1867 in Bridgewater , Connecticut , † September 13, 1935 in Hartford , Connecticut) was an American classical philologist . He was Hobart Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Trinity College, Hartford from 1899 to 1935.

Life

Frank Cole Babbitt was the younger son of the farmer and carpenter Isaac Babbitt (1831–1888) and his wife Sarah Cole Babbitt (1833–1898). His older brother was the Germanist Eugene Howard Babbitt (1859–1927). Frank Cole Babbitt grew up on his parents' farm and taught at a primary school from 1885 to 1887. From 1887 he studied (like his brother before him) Classical Philology at Harvard University , where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1890 and a master's degree in 1892 . From 1890 to 1895 he taught at a school in Boston. In 1895 he was with the dissertation De Euripidis Antiopa for Ph.D. PhD ; the work was never published.

Shortly after completing his doctorate, Babbitt was the first to receive a scholarship from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), which enabled him to spend one year researching in Greece. There he associated with the young archaeologists Theodore Woolsey Heermance , Herbert F. De Cou , Joseph Clark Hoppin and Eugene Plumb Andrews . During the Corinthian excavations begun in 1896 by ASCSA director Rufus B. Richardson , Babbitt discovered the city's ancient theater. In 1897 he published a detailed find report in the American Journal of Archeology . His travel notes, along with other documents, came to the ASCSA in 1987 as a fragment inheritance.

After returning to the USA, Babbitt initially taught as an Instructor of Greek at Harvard University. In 1898 he moved to Trinity College in Hartford (Connecticut) in the same capacity , where he was active in teaching and research throughout his life. In 1899 he was appointed Hobart Professor of Greek Language and Literature. From 1908 to 1931 he acted as secretary of the faculty. He was a member of the Archaeological Institute of America , the American Philological Association (President 1926/27) and a founding member of the Classical Association of New England (President 1920/21). In 1927 he received an honorary doctorate (LHD) from Trinity College. In 1931/32 he was visiting professor at the ASCSA.

Since June 28, 1900, Babbitt was married to Ethel Hunt. Their daughter Sarah Frances Babbitt (1906–1988) became a physical education teacher. Her father already played tennis at a high level into old age and took up squash at the age of 60.

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Babbitt studied a wide range of Greek literature. He has published critical essays on Homer and Lucian of Samosata , which have appeared in both American and European magazines. Most famous, however, is his translation of Plutarch's Moralia for the Loeb Classical Library (LCL), on which he worked for the last ten years of his life; because of his death he could not complete it. The series continued after Babbitt's death and ended with the publication of Volume 16 in 2004 (Index, LCL 499).

Fonts (selection)

• A Grammar of Attic and Ionic Greek . New York 1902
• Plutarch's Moralia . Five volumes, Cambridge (MA): Harvard UP, 1927–1936 (LCL, vols. 197, 222, 245, 305 and 306)

literature

• Ward W. Briggs : Babbitt, Frank Cole . In: Derselbe (ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 1994, ISBN 0-313-24560-6 , pp. 29-30.

Web links

• Entry on Frank Cole Babbitt in the Database of Classical Scholars (English)
• Information on Frank Cole Babbitt's fragmentary estate in the archive of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Frank Cole Babbit at Find A Grave (English)