Richmond Lattimore

Richmond Alexander Lattimore (May 6, 1906 - February 26, 1984) was an American poet and translator known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", which are generally considered as among the best translations available.

Born to David and Margaret Barnes Lattimore in Paotingfu, China, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1926. His brother, Owen Lattimore was a sinologist who was blacklisted for his association with China during the McCarthy era. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford and received his B.A. in 1932, then received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1934. He joined the Department of Greek at Bryn Mawr College the following year, and married Alice Bockstahler, with whom he later had two sons, Steven and Alexander. From 1943 to 1946, Lattimore was absent from his professorial post to serve in the United States Navy, but returned after the war to remain at Bryn Mawr College, with periodic visiting positions at other universities, until his retirement in 1971. He continued to publish poems and translations for the remainder of his life, with two poems appearing in print posthumously.

He translated the Revelation of John in 1962. A 1979 edition by McGraw-Hill Ryerson included the four Gospels. Lattimore completed translating the New Testament, which was published posthumously in 1996 with the title "The New Testament".

Lattimore was a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Philological Association, and the Archaeological Institute of America, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy at Rome and an Honorary Student at Christ Church, Oxford.

Lattimore's translation of Aristophanes' "The Frogs" won the Bollingen Poetry Translation Prize in 1962.

Excerpt

MARK

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I send forth my messenger before your face, who will make ready your way. The voice of one crying in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the roads before him. John the Baptist was in the desert preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And all the land of Judaea came out to him and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were baptized in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. John was clothed in camel's hair, and a belt of hide around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying: He who is stronger than I is coming after me, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the throng of his shoes. I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

External links

* [http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/lattimore.html Bryn Mawr bio of Lattimore, with bibliography]