Thomas Day Seymour

Thomas Day Seymour

Thomas Day Seymour (born April 1, 1848 in Hudson , Ohio ; † December 31, 1907 in New Haven , Connecticut ) was an American classical philologist who served as professor of Greek and Latin at Western Reserve College (1872-1880) and worked as Hillhouse Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Yale University (1880-1907).

Life

Thomas Day Seymour was the son of Nathan Perkins Seymour (1813-1891) and Elizabeth Day Seymour (1816-1900). His father was professor of Greek and Latin at Western Reserve College from 1840 until his death . Thomas Day Seymour studied there from 1866. After completing his bachelor's degree in 1870, he undertook a long educational trip to Europe, during which he deepened his studies at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin .

After his return to the USA, Seymour taught from 1872 together with his father at the Western Reserve College, where he was appointed professor of Greek and Latin language and literature. In 1880 Seymour received a call to Yale University , where he was appointed Hillhouse Professor of Greek Language and Literature as the successor to Lewis R. Packard . Yale University awarded him an honorary bachelor's degree (B.A.) for his employment. Seymour taught and researched at Yale University for 27 years, until his death. He also took on various editorial and administrative tasks outside the university. Together with John Williams White he edited the Ginn College Series of Greek Authors . He entered the American Philological Association and the Archaeological Institute of America . From 1884 he was a member of the governing body of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), from 1887 to 1901 as chairman. During his tenure, he managed to set up four additional grants for research stays at the ASCSA. One of them is the Thomas Day Seymour Fellowship in Greek History and Literature named after him . In 1888/89, Seymour was President of the American Philological Association. In 1900 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences made him a member. Seymour was President of the Archaeological Institute of America from 1903 until his death.

Seymour received several awards for his scientific and administrative achievements: He received an honorary doctorate in law (Doctor of Laws) from Western Reserve University (1894), the University of Glasgow (1910) and Harvard University (1906).

Seymour's main research focus was Greek literature, especially the Homeric epics. He published essays on various topics of Greek syntax and metrics , as well as study editions of the poems of Pindar and the Iliad , in addition an introduction to the Homeric language and metrics and a vocabulary list for his Iliad edition. In his individual research on the Homeric epics, he included the archaeological finds to a large extent, where his connections to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens helped him. He presented the sum of his research in the book Life in the Homeric Age , which appeared posthumously in 1908. Seymour, who took the Unitarian standpoint on the Homeric Question , was particularly esteemed in America during his lifetime. After his death, Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve called him “America's leading homerist”. Seymour's student Samuel Eliot Bassett continued the Homeric research of his teacher.

Thomas Day Seymour was married to Sarah Hitchcock Seymour (1846-1916). One of the couple's children was Charles Seymour (1885–1963), who later became President of Yale University.

Fonts (selection)

• Selected Odes of Pindar . Boston 1882
• Introduction to the Language and Verse of Homer . Boston 1885
• Homer: Iliad Books I-VI . Boston 1887. Revised Edition 1903
• A Concise Vocabulary of the First Six Books of the Iliad . Boston 1889
• Life in the Homeric Age . New York 1908

literature

• John Williams White: Memorial Address for Thomas Day Seymour 1848–1907 . New Haven CT 1908
• Louis E. Lord: A History of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1882-1942 . Cambridge 1947, pp. 49-98
• Meyer Reinhold : Seymour, Thomas Day . In: Ward W. Briggs (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists . Westport, CT / London: Greenwood Press 1994, ISBN 978-0-313-24560-2 , pp. 575f.

Web links

• Entry on Thomas Day Seymour in the Database of Classical Scholars (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Find A Grave Memorial: Nathan Perkins Seymour (1813-1891) . Retrieved June 2, 2015.
2. ^ John Henry Wright : Obituary: Thomas Day Seymour . In: The Classical Review . Volume 23 (1909), p. 26
3. ↑ American Journal of Philology . Volume 29 (1908), p. 115.