Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Encyclopedia
Sir Peter Hugh Jefferd Lloyd-Jones FBA
(21 September 1922 – 5 October 2009) was a British classical scholar and Regius Professor of Greek
at Oxford
.
Lloyd-Jones was educated at Westminster School
where he developed an interest in Modern History
before being converted to Classics
by his Headmaster, J. T. Christie. He pursued undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Christ Church
, Oxford
. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War
, during which he learned Japanese
and served in the Intelligence Corps in India
, turning down the opportunity to work at Bletchley Park
in order to serve in Burma. He ended the War as a Captain.
Lloyd-Jones took a first degree in Greats
in 1948 and gained several University prizes. For a while he was a Fellow
of Jesus College, Cambridge
, and while there met his first wife, Frances Hedley, a Classics
student at Newnham College
, whom he married in 1953. The couple had two sons and a daughter and were divorced in 1981. In 1951 Lloyd-Jones returned to Oxford where he became the first holder of the E. P. Warren Praelector
ship at Corpus
.
Lloyd-Jones supervised many distinguished D. Phil.
students, including Martin Litchfield West
. In his inaugural address as Regius Professor in 1961 he called for a reduction in the emphasis laid on composition taught to undergraduates and suggested that Honour Moderations
might have to be reformed to encompass studies taken from ancient philosophy and history as well as the traditional literature and language.
He contributed editions of Menander
's Dyscolus
(1960) and of Sophocles
(1990, together with Nigel Wilson) to the Oxford Classical Texts
, and editions and translations of the Aeschylean
fragments (1960) and of Sophocles (2000) to the Loeb Classical Library
.
Lloyd-Jones was elected a Fellow
of the British Academy
in 1966 and was a member of five foreign academies, holding honorary doctorates from the universities of Chicago
, Tel Aviv
, Göttingen and Thessaloniki
. His retirement from the Regius Chair
in 1989, after twenty-nine years, was marked by a knight
hood.
He married secondly Mary R. Lefkowitz
, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts
, in 1982, and spent his last years at their home in Wellesley
.
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
(21 September 1922 – 5 October 2009) was a British classical scholar and Regius Professor of Greek
Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford)
The Regius Professorship of Greek is a professorship at the University of Oxford in England.Henry VIII founded the chair by 1541. He established five Regius Professorships in the University , the others being the Regius chairs of Divinity, Medicine, Civil Law and Hebrew.-List of holders:* John...
at Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
Lloyd-Jones was educated at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
where he developed an interest in Modern History
Modern history
Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution...
before being converted to Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
by his Headmaster, J. T. Christie. He pursued undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Christ Church
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, during which he learned Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and served in the Intelligence Corps in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, turning down the opportunity to work at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
in order to serve in Burma. He ended the War as a Captain.
Lloyd-Jones took a first degree in Greats
Literae Humaniores
Literae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The Latin name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned",...
in 1948 and gained several University prizes. For a while he was a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
, and while there met his first wife, Frances Hedley, a Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
student at Newnham College
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
, whom he married in 1953. The couple had two sons and a daughter and were divorced in 1981. In 1951 Lloyd-Jones returned to Oxford where he became the first holder of the E. P. Warren Praelector
Praelector
A praelector is a traditional role at the colleges of the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. The role differs between the two universities.At Cambridge, a praelector is a fellow of a college...
ship at Corpus
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...
.
Lloyd-Jones supervised many distinguished D. Phil.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
students, including Martin Litchfield West
Martin Litchfield West
Martin Litchfield West is an internationally recognised scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology...
. In his inaugural address as Regius Professor in 1961 he called for a reduction in the emphasis laid on composition taught to undergraduates and suggested that Honour Moderations
Honour Moderations
Honour Moderations are a first set of examinations at Oxford University in England during the first part of the degree course for some courses ....
might have to be reformed to encompass studies taken from ancient philosophy and history as well as the traditional literature and language.
He contributed editions of Menander
Menander
Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...
's Dyscolus
Dyskolos
Dyskolos is an Ancient Greek comedy by Menander, the only one of his plays, or of the whole New Comedy, that has survived in all but complete form. It was first presented at the Lenaian festival in 317-16 BC, where it won Menander first prize...
(1960) and of Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
(1990, together with Nigel Wilson) to the Oxford Classical Texts
Oxford Classical Texts
Oxford Classical Texts , or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press. It contains texts of ancient Greek and Latin literature, such as Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, in the original language with a critical apparatus...
, and editions and translations of the Aeschylean
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
fragments (1960) and of Sophocles (2000) to the Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
.
Lloyd-Jones was elected a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
in 1966 and was a member of five foreign academies, holding honorary doctorates from the universities of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, Göttingen and Thessaloniki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest Greek university, and the largest university in the Balkans. It was named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, about 55 km east of Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia...
. His retirement from the Regius Chair
Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford)
The Regius Professorship of Greek is a professorship at the University of Oxford in England.Henry VIII founded the chair by 1541. He established five Regius Professorships in the University , the others being the Regius chairs of Divinity, Medicine, Civil Law and Hebrew.-List of holders:* John...
in 1989, after twenty-nine years, was marked by a knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
hood.
He married secondly Mary R. Lefkowitz
Mary Lefkowitz
Mary R. Lefkowitz is an American classical scholar and Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College. She is best known to non-Classicists for her anti-Afrocentrism book, Not Out of Africa . She is the widow of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones.-Biography:Lefkowitz earned her B.A...
, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, in 1982, and spent his last years at their home in Wellesley
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census.It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College...
.
Major publications
- Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, Blood for the Ghosts: Classical Influences in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983)
- ________ Classical Survivals: The Classics in the Modern World (London: Duckworth, 1982)
- ________ Greek Comedy, Hellenistic Literature, Greek Religion, and Miscellanea: The Academic Papers of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1990)
- ________ Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy: The Academic Papers of Sir Hugh Lloyd Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1990)
- ________ Greek in a Cold Climate (London: Duckworth, 1991)
- ________ The Justice of Zeus (2nd ed. Sather Classical Lectures, no. 42. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983)
- ________ Mythical Beasts (London: Duckworth, 1980)
- ________ Myths of the Zodiac (New York: St. Martin's, 1978)
- Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, ed., Females of the Species: Semonides on Women (Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes, 1975)
- Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, and Nigel Guy Wilson, Sophoclea: Studies on the Text of Sophocles (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1990)
- ________ Sophocles: Second Thoughts (Hypomnemata, no. 100. Götttingen : Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1997)
- Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, and Nigel Guy Wilson, eds., Sophoclis Fabulae, Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford Classical Texts) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990)