Dr Richard Rutherford

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Role or Position

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Academic Background

Undergraduate Teaching

Most areas of Greek and Latin language and Literature, esp. Homer, Virgil, Greek Tragedy, some Greek comedy, Catullus, Horace, elegy, ancient historiography.

I currently lecture on ‘Four Key Concepts for the Classicist’, ‘Homer’s Iliad: Style, Speech and Structure’, and ‘Euripides’. Other frequent courses in the past have included ‘An Introduction to Greek Tragedy’, ‘Thucydides book 7’, and ‘Looking at Style.’ I have found that lectures provide a useful springboard for publication, and a good deal of my published work on Homer’s Odyssey was tried out first in a lecture series entitled ‘Homer’s Odyssey: Themes and Structure’ which I gave for some years in the 1980s.

Research Interests

In the past I have published widely on Latin and especially Greek literature, especially Homer. My current interests focus mainly on the fifth and fourth centuries BC. For some time I have been working on a book on the language, style and imagery of the three major Greek tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. This will, I hope, appear in the next couple of years. An initial foray into this field appears in the form of a contribution, entitled ‘The Greek of Athenian Tragedy’, in ‘A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language’, edited by Egbert Bakker and published by Wiley-Blackwell. I am also interested in ancient historiography and hope to do more in this area in future.

Publications include:

Classical Literature: a Concise History (Blackwell 2004) You can see the cover of this book and read some sections by going to http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Literature-Concise-Blackwell-Introductions/dp/0631231331

Homer (Greece and Rome New surveys in the Classics 26, 1996; revised version in preparation). You can see the cover of this book and read some sections by going to
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Homer-Greece-Rome-Surveys-Classics/dp/0199222096/

The Art of Plato (Duckworth, London 1995)

Homer, Odyssey 19 and 20, with introduction and commentary (Cambridge 1992)

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: a Study (Oxford 1989)

Articles in journals and collected volumes, on a variety of authors including Homer, Thucydides, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus.

Numerous reviews in periodicals. For an example online, see my review of A.J.Woodman’s recent translation of Tacitus’ Annals in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-07-15.html