http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/news/2015/july/professor-martin-west
His books are some of my most prized possessions.
κούφα σοι χθὼν ἐπάνωθε πέσοι.
STTL
Rumor has it that, beyond the grief, he left behind another cause for pain almost as great, since he did not manage to finish his Odyssey.
A great man. May the gods keep him.
I received his Greek Metre yesterday and have been devouring it. “The book on Greek meter, in any language” to quote from Haslam’s review, and I can see why.
From his Indo-European Poetry and Myth:
“It remains the case that I write as a professional Hellenist, as much an amateur in Indo-European studies as in oriental. I have furnished myself with a working knowledge of some of the relevant languages. I have explored the literatures, roaming far and wide through unfamiliar landscapes, some rugged, some lush, a stranger in Paradise with a clipboard.”
His translation of Simonides, fragment 19:
This finest thing the Chian said:
‘As is the breed of leaves, e’en so is that of man.’
Few mortals who have had that in their ears
have taken it to heart, for everyone relies
on hope; it’s planted in a young man’s breast.
Sad news indeed.
ἀλλά σ’ ἐς Ἠλύσιον πεδίον καὶ πείρατα γαίης
ἀθάνατοι πέμψουσιν, ὅθι ξανθὸς Ῥαδάμανθυς
The first sentence of the first chapter of The East Face of Helicon, “culture, like all forms of gas, tends to spread out from where it is densest into adjacent areas where it is less dense.” That made me laugh a lot.
terrible news. many of his books are very helpful to me. he was also nice enough to email me a few times about things like ionic forms in homer and even look over my data on sappho word form localisations and give me his views on the patterns there. very kind for someone at that level to respond to someone outside the field.
nice to hear from you will!
cheers, chad
He was the Wilamowitz of his age. He was ὁ πάνυ. This is very sad.
He did not identify with Greek heroes, but as Ulysses, so he was “strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Telegraph Obituary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11753589/Professor-Martin-West-OM.html
Recent posts in Laudator Temporis Acti:
http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2015/07/alcman-fragment-26.html
http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2015/07/requisites-for-good-life.html
Thanks for posting this Joel. I’ve seen only two obits, from the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the Times (of London), much better than this one. Good to see the younger photo, though. I hadn’t realized he’d aged so in his final year or two. Photos of him at any age are few.
Here’s a couple of snippets from the Times obit, copied from pdf I was sent by its author. I apologize for formatting mess which I’ve only partly tidied.
Hisownconceptionofschol-arshipwasnotcomplicated.As heputit in his speech on acceptingtheInter-nationalBalzanprizeforclassicalantiq-uity:“A fact is of little interest except in relation to other facts. Finding meaningful relationships isthegreat challenge, in scholarship as in life.”
And slighter but no less revealing:
No great conversationalist, he was oncedescribedas“taciturn in seven an-cient languages”. Sometimeshe would go silent as he paused for thought in the middle of a discussion, until his com-panion was forced to ask, “Are you going to reply Martin or is that it?” “I haven’tdecidedyet,”hewouldrespond.
(I think the “taciturn …” quote may be doctored, though it’s very Oxonian. I know of a letter in which he was described as being able to “think in seven languages simultaneously.”)
To follow up on the last, there’s a story I believe to be true—I have it on good authority—about the time Martin West and Walter Burkert first met. (Each of them had very great respect for the other. It was West who sang the praises of Homo Necans in print at a time when no-one was taking any notice of it.) Apparently they shook hands and stood in mutual silence for some minutes until a third party came to their rescue.
According to de Gruyter’s web pages, West’s Odyssey edition is going to be published after all, in June 2016.
http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/455813
If true, this is great news indeed.
Wow! Wonderful news. I hope I am not jumping too quickly to concluding that West must have left his edition highly finished, as it is coming out in such haste—less than a year after his death.
Just noticed a review of West’s The Making of the Odyssey in the TLS by professor Peter Green from the last autumn.
Still sadly regretted.
I apologise for resuming this old thread, but I bumped into reminiscencing of Armand d’Angour which I wanted to share.
The Odyssey publication has been deferred to November. I wonder when it will really be published.
I wonder whether there are enough notes left to make constitute a “Text and Transmission of the Odyssey”. We’d really like to see how West justified his decisions. There very little in this direction in his Making of the Odyssey.