Thomas Day Seymour | |
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Born | |
Died | December 31, 1907 59) | (aged
Alma mater | Western Reserve College |
Occupation | Classics scholar |
Employer(s) | Western Reserve College Yale University |
Spouse | Sarah Melissa Hitchcock |
Children | Elizabeth Day Clara Hitchcock Charles Seymour |
Academic work | |
Main interests | Homeric poetry |
Thomas Day Seymour (April 1, 1848 –December 31, 1907) [1] was an American classical scholar. [2] He spent most of his career as a Professor of Greek at Yale University and published primarily on the works of Homer.
Born in Hudson, Ohio, Seymour graduated with a B.A. in 1870 at Western Reserve College, [2] present day Case Western Reserve University, where his father, Nathan Perkins Seymour, was for many years Professor of Greek and Latin. [3] He received an ad eundem degree from Yale in 1870, and honorary LL.D. degrees from Western Reserve in 1894, [2] from Glasgow University in 1901, and from Harvard University in 1906. [1] He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1900 and the American Philosophical Society in 1906. [4] [5]
After studying in Berlin and Leipzig and making many visits to Greece, [1] Seymour returned to Western Reserve College as professor of Greek from 1872 to 1880 before becoming professor of Greek at Yale University in 1880, holding his position until his death in New Haven. [3] [1]
From 1887 to 1901 Seymour was chairman of the managing committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, [2] and was president of the Archaeological Institute of America from 1903. [3] He was one of the American editors of the Classical Review . [1] [6]
He was the father of Yale President Charles Seymour, and the great-nephew of Yale President Jeremiah Day.
He married Sarah Melissa Hitchcock (b. Sep. 27, 1846) of Burton, Ohio on July 2, 1874, daughter of Western Reserve College president Rev. Henry L. Hitchcock and granddaughter of Justice Peter Hitchcock. [2] They had three children; Elizabeth Day Seymour (b. Jan 21, 1876) was his eldest daughter, and she married John Angel (sculptor) in 1942. [7] Clara Hitchcock Seymour was born on March 28, 1880, and his youngest child Charles Seymour was born on Jan. 1, 1885. [2]
Other than his Selected Odes of Pindar (1882), [8] Seymour's published work was largely confined to the study of the Homeric poems, [3] viz:
The Trial of Socrates was held to determine the philosopher's guilt of two charges: asebeia (impiety) against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state; the accusers cited two impious acts by Socrates: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities".
Bacchylides was a Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets, which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been noted in Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus. Some scholars have characterized these qualities as superficial charm. He has often been compared unfavourably with his contemporary, Pindar, as "a kind of Boccherini to Pindar's Haydn". However, the differences in their styles do not allow for easy comparison, and translator Robert Fagles has written that "to blame Bacchylides for not being Pindar is as childish a judgement as to condemn ... Marvell for missing the grandeur of Milton". His career coincided with the ascendency of dramatic styles of poetry, as embodied in the works of Aeschylus or Sophocles, and he is in fact considered one of the last poets of major significance within the more ancient tradition of purely lyric poetry. The most notable features of his lyrics are their clarity in expression and simplicity of thought, making them an ideal introduction to the study of Greek lyric poetry in general and to Pindar's verse in particular.
In Greek mythology, Peneus was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers (Potamoi), a child of Oceanus and Tethys.
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In Greek mythology, Coeus, also called Polus, was one of the Titans, one of the three groups of children born to Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth).
Menoetius or Menoetes, meaning doomed might, is a name that refers to three distinct beings from Greek mythology:
In Greek mythology, Hyperion was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn).
Cebes of Thebes was an Ancient Greek philosopher from Thebes remembered as a disciple of Socrates. One work, known as the Pinax (Πίναξ) or Tabula, attributed to Cebes still survives, but it is believed to be a composition by a pseudonymous author of the 1st or 2nd century AD.
In Greek mythology Phthia was a city or district in ancient Thessaly. It is frequently mentioned in Homer's Iliad as the home of the Myrmidons, the contingent led by Achilles in the Trojan War. It was founded by Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, and was the home of Achilles' father Peleus, mother Thetis, and son Neoptolemus.
Gregory Nagy is an American professor of Classics at Harvard University, specializing in Homer and archaic Greek poetry. Nagy is known for extending Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories about the oral composition-in-performance of the Iliad and Odyssey.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus. They were called Olympians because, according to tradition, they resided on Mount Olympus.
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, set in an idealized archaic past today identified as having some relation to the Mycenaean era. These two epics, along with the Homeric Hymns and the two poems of Hesiod, the Theogony and Works and Days, constituted the major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods.
A rhapsode or, in modern usage, rhapsodist, refers to a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Rhapsodes notably performed the epics of Homer but also the wisdom and catalogue poetry of Hesiod and the satires of Archilochus and others. Plato's dialogue Ion, in which Socrates confronts a star player rhapsode, remains the most coherent source of information on these artists. Often, rhapsodes are depicted in Greek art, wearing their signature cloak and carrying a staff. This equipment is also characteristic of travellers in general, implying that rhapsodes were itinerant performers, moving from town to town. Rhapsodes originated in Ionia, which has been sometimes regarded as Homer's birthplace, and were also known as Homeridai, disciples of Homer, or "singers of stitched lays."
Actor is a very common name in Greek mythology. Here is a selection of characters that share this name :
The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a key element of the stories associated with the Trojan War. In the Iliad, Homer describes a deep and meaningful relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, where Achilles is tender toward Patroclus, but callous and arrogant toward others. Its exact nature—whether homosexual, a non-sexual deep friendship, or something else entirely—has been a subject of dispute in both the Classical period and modern times. Homer never explicitly casts the two as lovers, but they were depicted as lovers in the archaic and classical periods of Greek literature, particularly in the works of Aeschylus, Aeschines and Plato. Some contemporary critics, especially in the field of queer studies, have asserted that their relationship was homosexual or latently homosexual, while some historians and classicists have disputed this, stating that there is no evidence for such an assertion within the Iliad and criticize it as unfalsifiable.
Aidos or Aedos was the Greek goddess of shame, modesty, respect, and humility. Aidos, as a quality, was that feeling of reverence or shame which restrains men from wrong. It also encompassed the emotion that a rich person might feel in the presence of the impoverished, that their disparity of wealth, whether a matter of luck or merit, was ultimately undeserved. Ancient and Christian humility share common themes: they both reject egotism, self-centeredness, arrogance, and excessive pride; they also recognize human limitations. Aristotle defined it as a middle ground between vanity and cowardice.
Agonius or Enagonius (Εναγώνιος) was an epithet of several gods in Greek mythology. Aeschylus and Sophocles use it of Apollo and Zeus, and apparently in the sense of helpers in struggles and contests, or possibly as the protectors of soldiers. But Agonius is more especially used as an epithet of Hermes, who presides over all kinds of solemn contests (ἀγῶνες), such as the Agonalia. Classical scholar William Warde Fowler thought it likely the deity or the epithets were merely inventions of the pontifices.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Glaucus, usually surnamed as Potnieus, was a son of Sisyphus whose main myth involved his violent death as the result of his horsemanship. He was the king of the Boeotian city of Potniae or sometimes of Corinth. Glaucus was the subject of a lost tragedy by Aeschylus, Glaucus Potnieus(Glaucus at Potniae), fragments of which are contained in an Oxyrhynchus Papyrus.
Lewis Richard Packard was an American scholar best known for his work, ‘’Morality and Religion of the Greeks’’.