William Geoffrey Arnott

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William Geoffrey Arnott (born September 17, 1930 in Bury , Lancashire , † December 1, 2010 ) was a British Graecist .

Arnott attended Bury Grammar School from 1940 to 1947 and then studied Classics at Pembroke College , Cambridge . He completed his studies in 1952 with a First Class BA . There he also won the Porson Prize for translation into Greek verse. In 1960 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the comedy poet Alexis at Cambridge University .

A first job as a lecturer found Arnott at King's College of Cambridge University (1960-1963). This was followed by a Senior Lecturership at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1963-1967), before Arnott was appointed professor of Greek language and literature at the University of Leeds in 1968 . There he was retired in 1991 and appointed professor emeritus. Visiting professorships took him to British Columbia , Alexandria , Queensland and Bologna . In 1973 he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton . In the 1987/88 academic year he was a visiting fellow at Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge.

In 1981 he became a member of the Società Italiana per lo Studio dell'Antichità Classica , and in 1999 a Fellow of the British Academy .

A lifelong hobby was watching birds . Arnott was a member of the local chapter of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and was president of the Leeds Birdwatchers Club from 1981 to 1984. From this hobby grew the most comprehensive representation of ancient ornithology to date .

Arnott was married to Vera Arnott and had three daughters with her.

Research priorities

Arnott belonged to the narrow circle of the world's leading experts in the field of Middle (Alexis) and New Comedy ( Menander ) of the Greeks. The exhaustive edition of the Fragments of Alexis goes back to Arnott's dissertation. From 1979 to 2000 he presented the now authoritative complete edition of the Comedies of Menander in the Loeb Classical Library, including explanations and translation, by a poet whose pieces were only known in detail in the 20th century due to extensive, but also difficult to decipher and classify papyrus finds were. Further areas of work were Euripides , the Hellenistic poets, the Greek novel, Aristainetus , Athenaios and ancient ornithology .

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • Birds in the ancient world from A to Z. Routledge, London, New York 2007. - Review by Roberto Batisti, in: Eikasmós 19, 2008, 517-519, (online) .
  • Menander, Plautus, Terence. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1975.

Text editions, comments and translations

  • Menander . In three volumes. Edited and translated by WG Arnott. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA - London. Vol. I: Aspis. Georgos. Dis exapaton. Dyscolus. Encheiridion. Epitrepontes. 1979 ( Loeb Classical Library 132); Vol. II: Heros. Theophoroumene. Karchedonios. Kitharistes. Kolax. Koneiazomenai. Leukadia. Misoumenos. Perikeiromene. Perinthia. 1996 (Loeb Classical Library 459), (online) ; Vol. III: Samia. Sikyonioi. Synaristosai. Phasma. Unidentified Fragments. (Loeb Classical Library 460). - Review of Vol. III by Sander Goldberg, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2001.05.16
  • Alexis. The fragments. A commentary. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996 (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries), (excerpts online) .
  • Menander's Dyskolos or The man who didn't like people. Translated into English prose by WG Arnott. Athlone Press, London 1960.

items

  • Humor in Menander . In: Siegfried Jäkel et al. (Ed.): Laughter Down the Centuries . 3rd volume. Turun Yliopisto, Turku 1997, ISBN 951-29-1006-3 ( Turun Yliopiston julkaisuja Sarja B, Humaniora 221), pp. 65-79.
  • Menander and earlier drama . In: John H. Betts et al. (Ed.): Studies in Honor of TBL Webster . Volume 1. Bristol Classical Press, Bristol 1986, ISBN 0-86292-193-7 , pp. 1-9.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Arnott, William Geoffrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Graecist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th September 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Bury , Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 2010