Johan Henrik Zilliacus

Johan Henrik Zilliacus (common name Henrik Zilliacus , born January 23, 1908 in Helsinki ; died January 9, 1992 there ) was a Finnish classical philologist , papyrologist, and epigraphist .

Henrik Zilliacus was the son of the Finnish-Swedish poet , writer and literary scholar Emil Zilliacus . In 1936 he received his doctorate at the University of Helsinki with the thesis " On the battle of the world languages ​​in the Eastern Roman Empire ". From 1939 to 1944 he worked as a teacher before he accepted the chair for Greek literature at the University of Helsinki in 1944. Here he taught until his retirement in 1974. From 1956 to 1959 he was the successor to the founding director Torsten Steinby, director of the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae in Rome .

Zilliacus was a recognized expert on the Middle Greek language and combined in his research methods of historical sciences with those of sociolinguistics . At the same time he was well versed in ancient Greek and Latin literature and ancient history . In his writings he made ancient studies accessible to a broad audience, for example with his book “ Nya vägar till antiken. Papyrusfynd och papyrusforskning ”(for example“ New Paths to Antiquity. Papyrus Findings and Papyrus Research ”). In his teaching he decisively shaped the first post-war generation of Finnish classical scholars.

Fonts (selection)

Until 1967 see Heikki Solin : Bibliography by Henrik Zilliacus . In: Arctos. Acta philologica Fennica NS 5, 1967, pp. 177-182.

• To the struggle of the world languages ​​in the Eastern Roman Empire. Helsinki 1935.
• Fourteen Berlin Greek papyri. Certificates and letters. Helsinki 1941.
• On the language of Greek family letters of the 3rd century AD. (P. Michigan 214-221). Helsinki 1943.
• Nya vägar till ancient. Papyrusfynd och papyrusforskning. Söderström, Helsinki 1948 (Finnish: Papyrustutkimus. Helsinki 1974).
• Late Byzantine Land-Leases from Hermopolis. Helsinki 1947.
• Investigations into the abstract forms of address and courtesy titles in Greek. Helsingfors Centraltryckeri, Helsinki 1949.
• Thucydides. Nature and culture, Stockholm 1952.
• Self-esteem and servility. Studies on the irregular use of numbers in Greek. Helsinki 1953.
• On the abundance of the late Greek common language. Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki 1967.
• Rooma, piirtokirjoitusten kaupunki. Gaudeamus, Helsinki 1982.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johan Henrik Zilliacus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography at Uppslagsverket Finland (Swedish).