British philologist and classical scholar (1937–2015)
Martin Litchfield West
OM FBA
Born
(1937-09-23)23 September 1937
London, England
Died
13 July 2015(2015-07-13) (aged 77)
Oxford, England
Nationality
British
Alma mater
Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation(s)
Professor, academic and author
Known for
Classics scholar
Honours
OM
Martin Litchfield West, OM FBA (23 September 1937 – 13 July 2015) was a British philologist and classical scholar.[1] In recognition of his contribution to scholarship, he was awarded the Order of Merit in 2014.[2]
West wrote on ancient Greek music, Greek tragedy, Greek lyric poetry, the relations between Greece and the ancient Near East, and the connection between shamanism and early ancient Greek religion, including the Orphic tradition. This work stems from material in Akkadian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic, as well as Greek and Latin. West also studied the reconstitution of Indo-European mythology and poetry and its influence on Ancient Greece, notably in the 2007 book Indo-European Poetry and Myth (IEPM).
West also produced an edition of Homer's Iliad for the Bibliotheca Teubneriana, accompanied by a study of its critical tradition and overall philology entitled Studies in the Text and Transmission of the Iliad. A further volume on The Making of the Iliad appeared ten years later, and one on The Making of the Odyssey was published in 2014.
^Fowler 2018, p. 116: "He identifies himself as a literary historian and philologist."
^Fowler 2018, p. 119.
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MartinLitchfieldWest, OM FBA (23 September 1937 – 13 July 2015) was a British philologist and classical scholar. In recognition of his contribution to...
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note series is alternatively described by Egert Pöhlmann [de] and MartinLitchfieldWest as corresponding "to a segment from the Ionian scale". R. P. Winnington-Ingram...
Pherecydes took Ophion and the Ophionidae from the Phoenicians. Ophites MartinLitchfieldWest, "Three Presocratic Cosmologies." In: The Classical Quarterly. 13(2)...
MartinLitchfieldWest, The Orphic Poems, 1983. MartinLitchfieldWest, Early Greek philosophy and the Orient, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971. Martin Litchfield...
ascribed to Homer. These influences are detailed by MartinLitchfieldWest in The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. According...
sort of reminder of the prophetess of olden times. The scholar MartinLitchfieldWest writes that the Pythia shows many traits of shamanistic practices...
the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone. According to MartinLitchfieldWest, the "most plausible etymology" derives "Zagreus" from zagre, which...
of the dismemberment and cannibalism of Dionysus by the Titans. MartinLitchfieldWest also asserts this in relation to shamanistic initiatory rites of...
attested form is Aḯdēs (Ἀΐδης), which lacks the proposed digamma. MartinLitchfieldWest argues instead for an original meaning of "the one who presides...
Nereus, as a patronymic, has also been suggested. According to MartinLitchfieldWest (1966), Nereus is much less important than his daughters, mentioning...
Nereus, as a patronymic, has also been suggested. According to MartinLitchfieldWest (1966), Nereus is much less important than his daughters, mentioning...
do not mention hoplite battle tactics, inhumation, or literacy. MartinLitchfieldWest has argued that the Iliad echoes the poetry of Hesiod, and that...
revolution, an impoverished and embittered exile dreaming of revenge. — MartinLitchfieldWest One forms a clear impression of his personality, sometimes high-spirited...
as original simply because of its degree of difficulty". Also, MartinLitchfieldWest cautions: "When we choose the 'more difficult reading'... we must...
etymologies Lists of etymologies List of river name etymologies MartinLitchfieldWest states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and...
west', which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. MartinLitchfieldWest stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and...
is the male equivalent of nymphomania. According to classicist MartinLitchfieldWest, satyrs and silenoi in Greek mythology are similar to a number of...
conventional sexual themes in Greek elegy. However, as noted by MartinLitchfieldWest, Mimnermus could have been a pederast and yet still have composed...
coherent Aesop legend appears, and Samos seems to be its home. — MartinLitchfieldWest The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop...
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