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 (Northern Ireland), A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the Civil parishes in Ireland, c ...
,
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 the ...
, 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 nam ...
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 establis ...
ancestry. When Dodds was ten, he moved with his mother to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, 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 ...
in
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 Kingdo ...
. 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 univer ...
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. Classics ...
, 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 Huxley ...
and
T. S. Eliot. 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 a ...
, 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
Arthur Blackburne Poynton (28 June 1867 – 8 October 1944) was an English classical scholar. He was a Fellow and later Master (college), Master of University College, Oxford, University College, University of Oxford, Oxford.Bickerton, Fred, ''Fre ...
.
After graduation, Dodds returned to Dublin and met
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
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
Kilkenny College is an independent Church of Ireland co-educational day and boarding secondary school located in Kilkenny, in the South-East of Ireland. It is the largest co-educational boarding school in Ireland. The school's students are mainly ...
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 192 ...
, 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
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
, and came to know
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
(whose father
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
, 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 Greece ...
. 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 Univer ...
of
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 Dorothy W ...
and
John Dewar Denniston
John Dewar Denniston (4 March 1887 in India – 2 May 1949 in Church Stretton) was a British classical scholar.
His parents were James Lawson Denniston, of the Indian Civil Service, and Agnes Guthrie. He was educated at Winchester College and New ...
of
Hertford College
Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...
). His lack of service in the First World War (he had worked briefly in an army hospital in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
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 develop ...
and socialism in addition to his scholarship on the non-standard field of
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonism, Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and Hellenistic religion, religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of ...
, 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 h ...
at whose college (
Christ Church) the Regius Chair of Greek was based.
Dodds had a lifelong interest in
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
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 laws, ...
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 condu ...
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
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 ...
.
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 Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
.
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 philosophers ...
: Elements of Theology'',
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
'
''Bacchae'' and
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 ...
'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
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 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 Emer ...
punk band
The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience (sometimes abbreviated MTX) is an American punk rock band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California, United States. They have released eleven full-length albums along with numerous EPs and singles and have toured international ...
recorded a song for their 1988 album, ''
Night Shift at the Thrill Factory
''Night Shift at the Thrill Factory'' is the second album by the Berkeley, California punk rock band The Mr. T Experience, released in 1988 by Rough Trade Records. Lookout! Records re-released the album in 1996 with a number of bonus tracks.
The ...
'', entitled "The History of the Concept of the Soul", which is a two-minute, musical version of lead singer
Frank Portman
Frank Portman (born September 21, 1964), better known by the pseudonym Dr. Frank, is an American musician, singer, guitarist, and author. He is the singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the Berkeley, California punk rock band The Mr. T Ex ...
'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
The Jane K. Sather Professorship of Classical Literature is an endowed chair for the study of classics at the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1914 after a donation by Jane K. Sather, widow of the Norwegian-American banker Peder ...
, 25)
*
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 ...
, ''Gorgias'', with "revised text with introduction and commentary, by E. R. Dodds". (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959)
*
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
, ''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 Lectures
The Wiles Lectures
cambridge.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022. Given At The Queen's University, Belfast, 1963)
* 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 philosophers ...
, ''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 ol ...
'', 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.
See also
* Allegorical interpretations of Plato
Many interpreters of Plato held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called allegories, symbols, or myths, that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning.
These allegorical in ...
References
Further reading
* Wayne Hankey
Re-evaluating E. R. Dodds’ Platonism
''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' (''HSCPh'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering topics in philology and classical studies, published annually. It was established in 1890 and is published by Harvard University Press
Harv ...
'' 103 (2005)
* Theodore Nash
Murray and Dodds and Page (oh my!): On the Pleasure and Value of Wissenschaftsgeschichte
in ''Antigone Journal''
* Christopher Stray, Christopher Pelling, and Stephen Harrison, eds., ''Rediscovering E. R. Dodds: Scholarship, Education, Poetry, and the Paranormal'' (Oxford UP, 2019)
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