T. B. L. Webster

T. B. L. Webster

Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster (3 July 1905 – 31 May 1974) was an English archaeologist and Classicist, known for his studies of Greek comedy.

During World War I he attended Charterhouse. As a student at Oxford University, he first studied Greek vases that John Beazley had brought in, but soon switched Menander and a lifelong interest in Greek comedy that resulted in "reconstructions of the plots of lost plays and ... collections of evidence from widely disparate sources bearing on the history of the Greek theater". He followed William Moir Calder (1880–1960) as Hulme Professor of Greek at Manchester University, a position he held 1931–48, when he was followed by Henry Westlake (1906–92). He then was Professor of Greek at University College London 1948–68 and in 1953 established the Institute of Classical Studies. During World War II he served as an officer in the military intelligence. After his wife, the Classicist A. M. Dale, died in 1967, he moved to Stanford University as professor of classics and as an emeritus.

In honour of his work, a street in the Acropolis district of Athens has been renamed to Webster Street (transliterated Gouemster on some signs and maps).

Publications and books

• A.S. Owen and T.B.L. Webster (1930). Excerpta ex antiquis scriptoribus quae ad Forum Romanum spectant / comparaverunt. Clarendon Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1936). An introduction to Sophocles. Clarendon Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1939). Greek art and literature 530-400 B.C. Clarendon Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1950). Greek terracottas. Penguin Books.
• T.B.L. Webster (1950). Studies in Menander. Manchester University Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1953). Studies in later greek comedy. Manchester University Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1956). Greek theatre production. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1956). Art and literature in fourth century Athens. Athlone Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1958). From Mycenae to Homer. A study in early Greek literature and art. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1959). Greek art and literature 700–530 BC. The beginnings of modern civilization. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1959). The birth of modern comedy of manners. Griffin Press, Adelaide.
• T.B.L. Webster (1960). Monuments illustrating old and middle comedy. Bull.Suppl., Institute of Classical Studies.
• T.B.L. Webster (1961). Monuments illustrating new comedy. Bull.Suppl., Institute of Classical Studies.
• T.B.L. Webster (1962). Monuments illustrating tragedy and satyr play. Bull.Suppl., Institute of Classical Studies.
• T.B.L. Webster (1964). Hellenistic poetry and art. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1966). The art of Greede. The age of hellenism. Crown Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1967). The tragedies of Euripides. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1969). Everyday life in classical Athens. Illustrated by Eva Wilson. B.T. Batsford.
• T.B.L. Webster (1970). The Greek chorus. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1970). Sophocles: Philoctetes. Cambridge University Press.
• Arthur Dale Trendall and T.B.L. Webster (1971). Illustrations of Grek drama. Phaidon Press.
• T.B.L. Webster (1972). Potter and patron in classical Athens. Methuen Publishing.
• T.B.L. Webster (1973). Athenian culture and society. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Awards and honors

• President of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers
• President of the Hellenic Society and the Classical Association
• Honorary Doctor of Letters at University of Manchester 1966 (also at Dublin)
• Fellowships in the Royal Academy and the Society of Antiquaries