Humphrey Davy Findley Kitto,
FBA (6 February 1897 – 21 January 1982) was a British
classical scholar of
Cornish ancestry. He was born in
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five Va ...
.
He was educated at
The Crypt School, Gloucester, and
St. John's College, Cambridge. He wrote his doctorate in 1920 at the
University of Bristol. He became a lecturer in Greek at the
University of Glasgow from 1920 to 1944. On that year, he returned to the
University of Bristol where he became Professor of Greek and
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
in 1962. He concentrated on studies of
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
, especially translations of the works of
Sophocles.
His early book, "In the Mountains of Greece", describes his journeys in that country, with no more than incidental reference to antiquity.
His 1952 general treatment ''
The Greeks'' covered the whole range of ancient Greek culture, and became a standard text.
After his retirement, he taught at
College Year in Athens (CYA), a study abroad program for foreign students in Athens, Greece.
Works
* ''In the Mountains of Greece'' (1933)
* ''Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study'' (1939)
''Form and meaning in drama: A study of six Greek plays and of Hamlet ''(1956)
* ''
The Greeks'' (1951; 1952), Penguin Books A220
* ''Poiesis: Structure and Thought'' (1966), Sather Classical Lectures
* ''Sophocles: Three Tragedies: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. translated into English verse by H. D. F. Kitto''
References
External links
*
1897 births
1982 deaths
People from Stroud
English classical scholars
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
People educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester
Classical scholars of the University of Bristol
Classical scholars of the University of Glasgow
Scholars of ancient Greek literature
Translators of Ancient Greek texts
Fellows of the British Academy
20th-century translators
{{UK-academic-bio-stub