Francisco Rodríguez Adrados (29 March 192221 July 2020) was a Spanish Hellenist, linguist and translator. He worked most of his career at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

. He was a member of the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanopho ...

and

Real Academia de la Historia The Royal Academy of History (, RAH) is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the different branches of life, of c ...

Life

Rodríguez Adrados was born on 29 March 1922 in

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

. He studied classical philology at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public university, public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the ...

, where he obtained a degree in 1944. He later obtained a doctorate in classical philology from the

. Rodríguez Adrados became a teacher of Greek at the Instituto Cardenal Cisneros in Madrid in 1949. Two years later, he became a professor at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

and the next year, he moved to the Complutense University of Madrid, where he worked until his retirement. He worked as a translator of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

texts. He was considered to be an expert on Ancient Greek. Rodríguez Adrados died on 21 July 2020 in Madrid, aged 98.

Awards and honors

For his work on the '' Diccionario Griego-Español'', Rodríguez Adrados received the Prize of the

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; , ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975) was a Greek and Argentine business magnate. He amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was marri ...

Foundation in 1989. He was elected to Seat ''d'' of the

on 21 June 1990, he took up his seat on 28 April 1991. Four years later he became a corresponding member of the

Academia Argentina de Letras The Academia Argentina de Letras is the academy in charge of studying and prescribing the use of the Spanish language in Argentina. Since its establishment, on August 13, 1931, it has maintained ties with the Royal Spanish Academy and the other Spa ...

. He was elected a foreign member of the Academy of Athens in 2003. Rodríguez Adrados was elected to ''medalla nº 3'' of the

on 23 May 2003 and took up his seat on 22 February 2004. In 2012, he won the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas. In 2014, he was awarded an honorary degree by the

University of Panama The University of Panama () is a public university in Panama City, Panama. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 student ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez Adrados, Francisco 1922 births 2020 deaths Complutense University of Madrid alumni Academic staff of the Complutense University of Madrid Foreign members of the Academy of Athens (modern) Hellenists Members of the Real Academia de la Historia Members of the Royal Spanish Academy People from Salamanca Scholars of Ancient Greek Spanish translators Academic staff of the University of Barcelona University of Salamanca alumni 20th-century Spanish historians 21st-century Spanish historians 20th-century Spanish linguists 21st-century Spanish linguists Spanish classical scholars Spanish historians