Eric Robertson Dodds (26 July 1893 – 8 April 1979) was an Irish classical scholar. He was Regius Professor of Greek at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1936 to 1960.

Early life and education

Dodds was born in

Banbridge Banbridge ( , ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the civil parish of Seapatrick and the historic barony o ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to t ...

, the son of schoolteachers. His father Robert was from a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

family and died of alcoholism when Dodds was seven. His mother Anne was of

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establish ...

ancestry. When Dodds was ten, he moved with his mother to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, and he was educated at St Andrew's College (where his mother taught) and at

Campbell College Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. He was expelled from the latter for "gross, studied, and sustained insolence". In 1912, Dodds won a scholarship at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

to read

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Class ...

, or '' Literae Humaniores'' (a two-part four-year degree program consisting of five terms' study of Latin and Greek texts followed by seven terms' study of ancient history and ancient philosophy). Friends at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

included

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

and

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biog ...

. In 1916, he was asked to leave Oxford due to his support for the

Easter Rising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the ...

, but he returned the following year to take his final examinations in '' Literae Humaniores'', and was awarded a first-class degree to match the first-class awarded him in 1914 in Honour Moderations, the preliminary stage of his degree. His first tutor at Oxford was A. B. Poynton. After graduation, Dodds returned to Dublin and met W. B. Yeats and AE (

George William Russell George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935), who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a centra ...

). He taught briefly at Kilkenny College and in 1919 was appointed as a lecturer in classics at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 19 ...

, where in 1923 he married a lecturer in English, Annie Edwards Powell (1886–1973). They had no children.

Academic career

In 1924, Dodds was appointed Professor of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

, and came to know W. H. Auden (whose father George, Professor of Public Medicine and an amateur classicist, was a colleague). Dodds was also responsible for

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...

's appointment as a lecturer at Birmingham in 1930. He assisted MacNeice with his translation of

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

, ''Agamemnon'' (1936), and later became the poet's

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed wo ...

. Dodds published one volume of his own poems, ''Thirty-Two Poems, with a Note on Unprofessional Poetry'' (1929). In 1936, Dodds became Regius Professor of Greek at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, succeeding

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greec ...

. Murray had decisively recommended Dodds to Prime Minister

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

(the chair was in the gift of the Crown) and it was not a popular appointment – he was chosen over two prominent Oxford dons (

Maurice Bowra Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra, (; 8 April 1898 – 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar, literary critic and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Unive ...

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorot ...

and John Dewar Denniston of Hertford College). His lack of service in the First World War (he had worked briefly in an army hospital in Serbia but later invoked the exemption from military service granted Irish residents) and his support for

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develo ...

and socialism in addition to his scholarship on the non-standard field of

Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...

, also did not make him initially popular with colleagues. He was treated particularly harshly by

Denys Page Sir Denys Lionel Page (11 May 19086 July 1978) was a British classicist and textual critic who served as the 34th Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge and the 35th Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for ...

at whose college ( Christ Church) the Regius Chair of Greek was based. Dodds had a lifelong interest in mysticism and

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural la ...

research, being a member of the council of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to cond ...

from 1927 and its president from 1961 to 1963. On his retirement in 1960, Dodds we made an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford, until his death in 1979. He died in the village of Old Marston, northeast of

Work

Among his works are ''The Greeks and the Irrational'' (1951), which charts the influence of irrational forces in Greek culture up to the time of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, and ''Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety'', a study of religious life in the period between

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

and

Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterrane ...

. For a bibliography of Dodds' publications see ''Quaderni di Storia'' no. 48 (1998) 175-94 (with addenda in the same journal, no. 61, 2005), and for general information on him and studies of some of his works see the bibliography to the entry for him in ''The Dictionary of British Classicists'' (2004), vol. 1, 247–51. Add the articles on his work on Neoplatonism in ''Dionysius'' 23 (2005) 139-60 and ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 103 (2007) 499–542. He was also editor of three major classical texts for the

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, ''

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor ( grc-gre, Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophe ...

: Elements of Theology'',

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars at ...

' ''Bacchae'' and

's ''Gorgias'', all published with extensive commentaries, and a translation in the case of the first. His autobiography, ''Missing Persons'', was published in 1977. He edited

's unfinished autobiography ''The Strings are False'' (1965) and MacNeice's ''Collected Poems'' (1966).

Cultural references

The

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Em ...

punk band The Mr. T Experience recorded a song for their 1988 album, '' Night Shift at the Thrill Factory'', entitled "The History of the Concept of the Soul", which is a two-minute, musical version of lead singer Frank Portman's (also known as Dr. Frank) master's thesis. Dodds' ''The Greeks and the Irrational'' is specifically referenced at the end of the song as "footnotes" (including an Ibid) sung by Portman.

Publications

Books

*''Select Passages Illustrative of Neoplatonism'' (London: S. P. C. K., 1924) (Texts for Students, 36) *''Thirty-Two Poems: With a Note On Unprofessional Poetry'' (London: Constable, 1929) *''Humanism and Technique in Greek Studies: A Lecture'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936) *''Minds in the Making'' (London: Macmillan & Co., 1941) (Macmillan War Pamphlets, 14)
''The Greeks and the Irrational''
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951) ( Sather Classical Lectures, 25) *

, ''Gorgias'', with "revised text with introduction and commentary, by E. R. Dodds". (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959) *

, ''Bacchae'', 2nd edition, "edited with introduction and commentary, by E. R. Dodds". (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960) *''Morals and Politics in the Oresteia'' (Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society, 1960) *''Classical Teaching in an Altered Climate'' (London: John Murray, 1964) *
Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety
' (Cambridge University Press, 1965) (The Wiles LecturesThe Wiles Lectures
cambridge.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022. Given At The Queen's University, Belfast, 1963) *

, ''The Elements of Theology'', "a revised text with translation, by E. R. Dodds". (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964) *
The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief
' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973) *''Missing Persons: An Autobiography'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977)

Articles

"Why I Do Not Believe in Survival"
(London: Society for Psychical Research, 1934) (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, part 135, pp. 147-172) * "Maenadism in the ''Bacchae''". ''

Harvard Theological Review The ''Harvard Theological Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1908 and published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School. It covers a wide spectrum of fields in theological and rel ...

'', 1940, 33, 115-76 * "Three notes on the ''Medea''" (''Humanitas'', 1952, 4, 13-18) * "Gilbert Murray" (''

Gnomon A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields. History A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was excavated at the astronomical site of Taosi is the o ...

'', 1957, 29, 476-9) * "On misunderstanding the ''Oedipus Rex''" ('' Greece and Rome'', 1966, 13, 37-49) * "Supernormal Phenomena in Classical Antiquity" (London: Society for Psychical Research, 1971) (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 55, p. 203)

Other

* "Memoir", in Dodds, E. R., ed.,
Journals and Letters of Stephen MacKenna
', London: Constable & Company Ltd., 1936 (Other People's Letters), pp. 1–89.

References

External links

* * Donald Russell
Dodds, Eric Robertson, 1893-1979
at

The British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodds, E. R. 1893 births 1979 deaths People from Banbridge People educated at St Andrew's College, Dublin People educated at Campbell College Alumni of University College, Oxford Irish classical scholars Scholars of Greek mythology and religion Parapsychologists Irish autobiographers Classical scholars of the University of Reading Classical scholars of the University of Birmingham Regius Professors of Greek (University of Oxford) Presidents of the Classical Association