Barry B. Powell: Difference between revisions
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{{short description|American classical scholar (born 1942)}} |
{{short description|American classical scholar (born 1942)}} |
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'''Barry Bruce Powell''' (born 1942) is an American classical scholar. He is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], author of the textbook ''Classical Myth'' and many other books. Trained at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]] and [[Harvard University|Harvard]], he is a specialist in [[Homer]] and in the history of writing. |
'''Barry Bruce Powell''' (born 1942) is an American classical scholar. He is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], author of the textbook ''Classical Myth'' and many other books. Trained at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]] and [[Harvard University|Harvard]], he is a specialist in [[Homer]] and in the history of writing. |
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Revision as of 22:41, 29 September 2023
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (September 2023) |
Barry Bruce Powell (born 1942) is an American classical scholar. He is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of the textbook Classical Myth and many other books. Trained at Berkeley and Harvard, he is a specialist in Homer and in the history of writing.
Works
Powell's study Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet advances the thesis that a single man invented the Greek alphabet expressly in order to record the poems of Homer.[1] This thesis is controversial. Powell's Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature follows up themes broached by the thesis. His Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization (Wiley-Blackwell 2009) rejects the standard theories of the origins of both Sumerian cuneiform and the Phoenician alphabet as deriving from pictograms.[2] and attempts to create a scientific terminology and taxonomy for the study of writing,
In Powell's critical study Homer,he suggested that Homer may have hailed from Euboea instead of Ionia.[3]
He has translated the Iliad[4] and the Odyssey. The introduction to these poems discusses Powell's thesis about the Greek alphabet and the recording of Homer and is an influential review of modern Homeric criticism.[5] He has also translated the Aeneid and the poems of Hesiod. His Greek Poems to the Gods includes translation and commentary on Greek hymns from Homer to Proclus.
Works
Books
- Composition by Theme in the Odyssey, Meisenheim am Glan, 1977
- Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, 1991
- A New Companion to Homer, editor, with Ian Morris, Brill, 1997
- A Short Introduction to Classical Myth, Prentice-Hall/Pearson, 2001
- Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2003
- The War at Troy: A True History, Xlibris, 2006
- Rooms Containing Falcons, Poems, Xlibris, 2006
- Ramses in Nighttown, A Novel, Xlibris, 2006
- Homer, Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2007
- Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009
- Classical Myth, 9th ed., Oxford University Press, 2014
- The House of Odysseus, and other short fictions, Orion Books, 2016
- Tales of the Trojan War, with Illustrations from European Art, Amazon Publications, 2017
- The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society (with Ian Morris) 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2020
- Myths of the Ancient World, Amazon Publicaions, 2023
- An American Classicist in China, Amazon Publications, 2023
- Classical Myth: an introduction, University of Michigan Press, 2023
Translations
- Ilias, Odysseia. Greek text, with translation of Alexander Pope, Chester River Press, 2009
- The Iliad, Oxford University Press, 2013
- The Odyssey, Oxford University Press, 2014
- Vergil's Aeneid, Oxford University Press, 2015
- The Poems of Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, the Shield of Heracles, University of California Press 2017
- Greek Poems to the Gods, University of California Press, 2021
Notes and references
- ^ "When the Ancient Greeks Began to Write", Archaeology, pp. 44–49 (May/June 2017)
- ^ Powell 2009, chapter 14; Review by L. R. Siddall
- ^ Barry B. Powell, Homer, Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, p. 30: "Although most handbooks call Homer an Ionian poet, who lived and worked in Asia Minor, he may have worked on the long island of Euboea that hugs the east coast of mainland Greece. Certain technical features of his dialect may mark it as West Ionian, as opposed to the East Ionian of the Asia Minor coast."
- ^ Review by Hayden Pelliccia, "As Many Homers as you Please", New York Review of Books (20 November 2017)
- ^ Blume, Harvey (12 January 2014). "Fuse Poetry Commentary: Thoughts on Reading a New Translation of The Iliad". The Arts Fuse. Retrieved 3 November 2014.