Elaine Fantham
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Elaine Fantham (née Crosthwaite, 25 May 1933 – 11 July 2016) was a British-Canadian
classicist 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 ...
whose expertise lay particularly in
Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...
, especially comedy, epic poetry and rhetoric, and in the social history of Roman women. Much of her work was concerned with the intersection of literature and Greek and Roman history. She spoke fluent Italian, German and French and presented lectures and conference papers around the world—including in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Argentina, and Australia. Her commentaries on Senecan tragedy, Lucan, and Ovid's ''Fasti'' in particular led to renewed interest in these subjects. Likewise her articles on aspects of the representation and realities of women at Rome remain a foundation for academic work in these areas. She was also classics commentator on
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's ''
Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...
''. Fantham was Giger Professor of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
from 1986 to 1999.


Education

Fantham studied at
Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
, where she read ''Literae Humaniores'' and received a first class BA in 1954, converted to an MA in 1957. She held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship at the University of Liverpool 1956–58. She completed her PhD at the University of Liverpool in 1965. Its thesis was entitled "A Commentary on the ''Curculio'' of Plautus", and was examined by R. G. Austin and O. Skutsch.


Career

Fantham taught in a secondary school for girls in
St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
, Scotland, for seven years, and briefly at the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
. She moved to
Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...
, and was a visiting lecturer for two years (1966–68). Following this, Fantham moved to Toronto where she taught at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
for eighteen years (1968–86), being also appointed a visiting professor at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
, in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
, in 1983. She was chair of the Department of Classics at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
from 1989 to 1992. In 1986 the university appointed her Giger Professor of Latin, a position which she held until her retirement in 2000. After retiring from Princeton University, Fantham lived in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
with her daughter, and continued to make significant contributions to the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto. She taught an annual course there from 2003. She was active as a mentor across Canada and around the world.


Classical associations and editorial committee roles

Between 1976 and 1979 Fantham was a member of the editorial committee of ''Phoenix'', a journal of the Classical Association of Canada and did much to establish the international reputation of the journal. Fantham was vice-president of the
Classical Association of Canada The Classical Association of Canada (CAC) (french: La Société canadienne des études classiques (SCEC)) is a national, nonprofit organization with the aim of advancing the study of the civilizations of the Greek and Roman worlds in their Mediter ...
from 1982 to 1984, and vice-president and later president of the Canadian Society for the History of Rhetoric (1983–1986). From 2003 to 2004 Fantham was president of the
American Philological Association The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA) is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the preemine ...
and, from 2001 to 2006, she was honorary president of the Classical Association of Canada.


Awards

On 5 January 2008 Fantham was given the Distinguished Service Award of the American Philological Association. In 2012 she was made an honorary fellow of
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, University of Toronto. In May 2015 Fantham was awarded the Classical Association of Canada's Award of Merit.


Personal life

Elaine Fantham was born in
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, United Kingdom. She was married to the mathematician Peter Fantham and had two children, Julia and Roy.


Works


Books

*''Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972) *''Women in the Classical World: Image and Text'' (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) . *''Roman Literary Culture: From Cicero to Apuleius'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) . *''Ovid's Metamorphoses'', (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) . *''The Roman World of Cicero's De Oratore'', (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) . (Review) *''Julia Augusti. The Emperor's Daughter'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006) . *''Latin Poets and Italian Gods'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009) *''Roman Literary Culture: From Plautus to Macrobius'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013)


Festschrift

* Rolando Ferri, J. Mira Seo, Katharina Volk (ed.), ''Callida Musa: Papers on Latin Literature in Honor of R. Elaine Fantham. Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 61'' (Pisa/Roma: Fabrizio Serra editore, 2009) . (Review here)


Ovatio

* 'Elaine Fantham', ''The Classical World'', by Judith P. Hallett, vol. 99, no. 4 (Summer, 2006) 442 (in Latin)


Editing

* ''Greek Tragedy and its Legacy: Essays Presented to D. J. Conacher'', edited by Martin Cropp, Elaine Fantham, and S.E. Scully (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1986) * ''Caesar Against Liberty?: Perspectives on His Autocracy,'' edited by Elaine Fantham and Francis Cairns (Cambridge: Francis Cairns, 2003) * ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', edited by Michael Gagarin and Elaine Fantham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) * ''The Emperor Nero: A Guide to the Ancient Sources'', edited by Anthony A. Barrett, Elaine Fantham, and John C. Yardley (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016)


Commentaries

*Seneca, ''Troades: A Literary Introduction with Text, Translation, and Commentary'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) *Ovid, ''Fasti IV'', introduction and commentary in English with the Latin text by Elaine Fantham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) * Lucan, ''De Bello Civili Book II'', edited by Elaine Fantham with the Latin text and commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) *''Cicero's pro L. Murena Oratio'', introduction and commentary by Elaine Fantham, American Philological Association Texts and Commentaries Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)


Translations

*''Seneca's Troades: A Literary Introduction with Text, Translation, and Commentary'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) *Erasmus, ''Erasmus: Literary and Educational Writings'', co-edited with Erika Rummel (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1989) *Virgil, ''Georgics'', translated by Peter Fallon; with an introduction and notes by Elaine Fantham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) *Virgil, ''Aeneid'', translated by Frederick Ahl, introduction by Elaine Fantham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) *Seneca, ''Selected Letters'', translated with an introduction by Elaine Fantham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) *Erasmus, ''Apophthegmata'', translated and annotated by Betty I. Knott and Elaine Fantham (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014) *''Change Me: Stories of Sexual Transformation from Ovid'', translated by Jane Alison, with a foreword by Elaine Fantham, and an introduction by
Alison Keith Alison Keith is a classical scholar who is Professor of Classics and Women's Studies at the University of Toronto, where she has been a Fellow of Victoria University of Toronto since 1989. She is an expert on the relationships between gender and g ...
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) *Seneca, ''Hardship and Happiness'', translations by Elaine Fantham, Harry M. Hine, James Ker, and Gareth D. Williams (Chicago; The University of Chicago Press, 2014) *Petrarch, ''Selected Letters, Volumes I and II'' I Tatti Renaissance Library Nos. 76 & 77 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017)


Chapters

* "Aemilia Pudentilla: Or the Wealthy Widow's Choice", ''Women in Antiquity: New Assessments'', edited by Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (London: Routledge, 1995) * "'Envy and Fear the Begetter of Hate': Statius' Thebaid and the Genesis of Hatred", ''The Passions in Roman Thought and Literature'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) * "Allecto's First Victim: A Study of Vergil's Amata", ''Vergil's Aeneid: Augustan Epic and Political Context'', edited by Hans-Peter Stahl (London: Duckworth, in association with The Classical Press of Wales, 1998) * "Ovid's Fasti: Politics, History, and Religion", ''Brill's Companion to Ovid'', edited by Barbara Weiden Boyd (Leiden: Brill, 2002) * "The Performing Prince", ''A Companion to the Neronian Age'', edited by Emma Buckley and Martin T. Dinter (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) 17–28


Articles

* "Virgil's Dido and Seneca's tragic heroines", ''Greece and Rome'', vol. 22, no. 1 (April 1975) 1–10 * "Sex, Status, and Survival in Hellenistic Athens: A Study of Women in New Comedy", ''Phoenix'', vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring 1975) 44–74 * "Sexual Comedy in Ovid's Fasti: Sources and Motivation", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. 87 (1983) 185–216 * "Mater dolorosa", ''Hermathena,'' no. 177/8 (Winter 2004 and Summer 2005) 113-24


References


External links


Elaine Fantham: Scholar was a ‘rock star’ of the classics world
Toronto Globe and Mail obituary by John Allemang, 7 August 2016
Elaine Fantham on WorldCat

Memorial to Elaine Fantham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantham, Elaine 1933 births 2016 deaths Indiana University faculty British classical scholars Women classical scholars NPR personalities Classical scholars of Princeton University Classical scholars of the University of Toronto Canadian Latinists British Latinists Scholars of Latin literature Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford