Martin Litchfield West facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Martin Litchfield West
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| Born | 23 September 1937 |
| Died | 13 July 2015 (aged 77) Oxford, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Professor, academic and author |
| Known for | Classics scholar |
| Honours | OM |
Martin Litchfield West (born September 23, 1937 – died July 13, 2015) was a brilliant British scholar. He was a philologist, meaning he studied languages and their history. He was also a classical scholar, focusing on the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Because of his amazing contributions to knowledge, he received a special award called the Order of Merit in 2014.
West wrote many important works about ancient Greek music, Greek plays, and Greek poems. He also explored how Greece was connected to the ancient Near East, a region including parts of Asia and Africa. He studied how ancient beliefs like shamanism and the Orphic tradition influenced early ancient Greek religion. To do this, he learned many old languages like Akkadian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic, as well as Greek and Latin.
He also researched very old Indo-European stories and poems. He showed how these ancient traditions influenced Ancient Greece. His 2012 book, Indo-European Poetry and Myth, explained this in detail.
In 2001, he created a special edition of Homer's famous epic poem, the Iliad. He also wrote books about how the Iliad and Odyssey were created.
Contents
Life and Career of Martin Litchfield West
Early Life and Education
Martin Litchfield West was born in London, England, on September 23, 1937. He was the only child of Catherine and Maurice Charles West. His father was a civil engineer. The family moved to Hampton in 1939.
At age 4, Martin started at a private school called Denmead. When he was 11, he went to Colet Court. There, he discovered his love for languages. By age 14, he even invented his own language called 'Unilingua'. In 1951, he won a scholarship to St Paul's. He was excellent at both languages and math. He earned a scholarship to Balliol College at Oxford, a year earlier than most students.
Academic Career
In 1960, West married Stephanie Pickard, who was also a scholar. He became a junior research fellow at St John's College from 1960 to 1963. His doctoral thesis, a detailed study of Hesiod's Theogony, won an award in 1965. It was published as a book the next year.
From the mid-1960s, West became very interested in how Greek literature was connected to the ancient East. For many years, he argued that Greek literature was greatly influenced by writings from the Near East. His major work on this topic was The East Face of Helicon (1997).
He worked as a tutor at University College, Oxford from 1963 to 1974. In 1973, at just 35 years old, he became a Fellow of the British Academy. This is a great honor for scholars. He then became a professor at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College in London, where he taught from 1974 to 1991. After that, he became a fellow at All Souls College in Oxford. He officially retired in 2004 but continued his work at All Souls until he passed away.
Death
Martin Litchfield West died in Oxford in 2015 from a heart attack. He was 77 years old. Another Oxford scholar, Armand D'Angour, said he was "a man of few words in seven languages," showing his incredible knowledge of languages.
Major Works
West edited and wrote comments for Hesiod's famous poems, Theogony and Works and Days. In 1967, he published Fragmenta Hesiodea, which included other poems believed to be by Hesiod. He also edited a book about fragments of Hesiod's Catalogue of Women.
He prepared special editions of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the well-known Bibliotheca Teubneriana collection. He also edited the Homeric Hymns for the Loeb Classical Library.
Awards and Honours
Martin Litchfield West received many awards for his important work:
- 2000: Balzan Prize for Classical Antiquity
- 2002: Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies from the British Academy.
- 2007: A book of essays on ancient Greek literature was written in his honor for his 70th birthday.
He earned two advanced degrees from Oxford University: a DPhil and a DLitt. He was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He became a member of important academic groups like the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen and the Academia Europaea in London. In 2010, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Member of the Order of Merit (OM), which is a very high honor in the United Kingdom.
Academic Roles and Research
- Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (since 2004)
- Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (1991–2004)
- Professor of Greek, University of London (Bedford College, later Royal Holloway and Bedford New College) (1974–91)
- Fellow and Praelector in Classics, University College, Oxford (1963–74)
- Jr. Woodhouse Research Fellow, St. John's College, Oxford (1960–63)
See also
In Spanish: Martin Litchfield West para niños
