The Jane K. Sather Professorship of Classical Literature is an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

for the study of

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 ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Established in 1914 after a donation by

Jane K. Sather Jane K. Sather (''née'' Krom; March 9, 1824 – December 11, 1911) was an American philanthropist and one of the University of California, Berkeley's most significant benefactors. She founded the Sather Professorship of Classical Literature and t ...

, widow of the Norwegian-American banker

Peder Sather Peder Sather (September 25, 1810 – December 28, 1886) was a Norwegian-born American banker who is best known for his legacy to the University of California, Berkeley. His widow, Jane K. Sather, donated money in his memory for two of the sch ...

, the professorship requires its holder to spend one term at the university. Sather Professors would teach a full programme of classes. Since 1919, the post entails a set of lectures on a unified topic which is later published as a book by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. According to

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 ...

Oliver Taplin Oliver Taplin, FBA (born 2 August 1943) is a retired British academic and classicist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University. Ac ...

, the chair is "the most prestigious rofessorshipin the subject in the world".

Foundation

In 1886, the Norwegian-American banker

died, leaving a substantial fortune to his second wife

. In 1900, after managing the bequest herself for some time, she decided to make an initial donation of $75,000 and other assets to the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. At this time, Sather stipulated that her donation be used to establish a professorship of the

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 ...

and a fund for the study of law. Shortly before her death in 1911, she arranged for the funds to be consolidated; they were now to pay for what would become the

Sather Tower Sather Tower is a bell tower with clocks on its four faces on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. It is more commonly known as The Campanile ( , also ) for its resemblance to the Campanile di San Marco in Venice. It is a recog ...

and the establishment of two professorships: one in Classics and one in

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

. The

Regents of the University of California The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...

complied with Sather's wishes and divided her donation accordingly. $100,000 were allocated for each of the professorships. Although her husband had accumulated the initial donation, both the tower and the professorships were named after her. In 1914,

Benjamin Ide Wheeler Benjamin Ide Wheeler (July 15, 1854– May 2, 1927) was a professor of Greek and comparative philology at Cornell University, writer, and President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919. Life and career Early years Benjamin ...

, the university's president, appointed the British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

John Myres Sir John Linton Myres Kt OBE FBA FRAI (3 July 1869 in Preston – 6 March 1954 in Oxford) was a British archaeologist and academic, who conducted excavations in Cyprus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Life He was the son of t ...

to be the first holder of the chair.

Professorship

Initially, holder of the professorship would spend one term at Berkeley, teaching a full programme of classes. In 1919, classicists

Ivan Mortimer Linforth Ivan Mortimer Linforth (15 September 1879, San Francisco – 15 December 1976, Berkeley, California) was an American scholar, Professor of Greek at University of California, Berkeley. According to the ''Biographical Dictionary of North American Clas ...

and George Calhoun modified the nature of the appointment: henceforth, holders would give a specified number of lectures (initially eight, later six) on a unified topic. The lectures should then be published as a book by the

. Until 1952, Sather Professors were given access to an office in the university's

Wheeler Hall Wheeler Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California in the Classical Revival style. Home to the English department, it was named for the philologist and university president Benjamin Ide Whee ...

which included its own lavatory. The office has since been replaced by rooms in Dwinelle Hall furnished with a dedicated library and portraits of past holders of the chair. The Sather Professorship has been held by numerous distinguished scholars including

Cyril Bailey Cyril Bailey, CBE, FBA (1871–1957) was an English classicist. He was a fellow and tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1902 to 1939. Early life He was born on 13 April 1871 to Alfred Bailey, a barrister and legal scholar, and his wife Fann ...

E. R. Dodds Eric Robertson Dodds (26 July 1893 – 8 April 1979) was an Irish classics, classical scholar. He was Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford), Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford from 1936 to 1960. Early life and education Dodds wa ...

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 ...

Geoffrey Kirk Geoffrey Stephen Kirk, () was a British classicist who served as the 35th Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. He published widely on pre-Socratic philosophy and the work of the Greek poet Homer, culminating in a six-volu ...

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

Edward Rand Edward Kennard Rand FBA OCI (December 20, 1871 – October 28, 1945), known widely as E.K. Rand or to his peers as EKR, was an American classical scholar and medievalist. He served as the Pope Professor of Latin at Harvard University from 190 ...

, and

Bernard Knox Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox (November 24, 1914 – July 22, 2010Wolfgang Saxon ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2010.) was an English classicist, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the Center ...

. Appointments in the 21st century have included Latinists Philip Hardie,

Alessandro Barchiesi Alessandro Barchiesi (born 1955) is an Italian classicist. A specialist on Latin poetry, he is best known for his work on Horace, Vergil and Ovid. Having spent the majority of his career in Italy and the United States, he has served as a professo ...

, and Denis Feeney,

Hellenists In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

Helene P. Foley, and

Gregory Nagy Gregory Nagy ( hu, Nagy Gergely, ; born October 22, 1942 in Budapest)"CV: Gregory Nagy"
''gr ...

, and historians Mary Beard and Nicholas Purcell. According to classicist

, the chair is "the most prestigious rofessorshipin the subject in the world".

Impact

Writing for ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'', poet and author

Robert Bringhurst Robert Bringhurst Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013). (born 16 October 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote ''The Eleme ...

states that the Sather Lectures and its associated publications "include many major works of classical scholarship". The 1969 Lectures, given by Hellenist

Hugh Lloyd-Jones Sir Peter Hugh Jefferd Lloyd-Jones FBA (21 September 1922 – 5 October 2009məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ..., in 1982, and spent his last 27 years at their home in Wellesley. Major publicat ...

, offered "an important re-examination of the religious beliefs of the Greeks in the pre-classical and classical periods". They resulted in 1971 in the publication of Lloyd-Jones' first influential publication, ''The Justice of Zeus''. In 1970, historian

F. W. Walbank Frank William Walbank (; 10 December 1909 – 23 October 2008) was a scholar of ancient history, particularly the history of Polybius. He was born in Bingley, Yorkshire, and died in Cambridge. Walbank attended Bradford Grammar School and ...

delivered the Sather Lectures on the Greek writer

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

. His resulting book (''Polybius'' (1972)) was still considered the standard work on this topic in the early 21st century. In 2007, Helene P. Foley gave the first Sather Lecture on the topic of

classical reception studies Classical reception studies is the study of how the classical world, especially Ancient Greek literature and Latin literature, have been received since antiquity. It is the study of the portrayal and representation of the ancient world from ancient ...

. Analysing the re-performance of classical plays in the United States, her lectures are described by Taplin as "somewhat of a milestone" in moving the subject closer to the mainstream of classical scholarship.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Professorship of Classical Literature, Sather University of California, Berkeley Classical Literature, Sather