Ulrich von Wilamowitz - Moellendorff

The German philologist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848-1931) was a leading scholar and teacher of classical studies. Even as a student, he demonstrated his inclination towards the humanities, and shortly thereafter, as a student at the University of Bonn, he published his translation of Euripides' "Alcestis." In "The Philosophy of the Future," he critiques Nietzsche, believing that his work had a decisive influence on the development and trajectory of his great compatriot. A scholar of Euripides' manuscripts, he published the "Euripidean Analecta" (1875) and later (1889) "Heracles" (with an introduction to Attic tragedy, text, and commentary). In 1874, he became a lecturer at the University of Berlin, and the following year a professor at Greifswald; he was subsequently invited to Göttingen, where he published works such as "Homeric Studies," "Agamemnon" (translation and critical observations), "Aristotle's Athenian Constitution" (together with Kaibel), "Aristotle and Athens," among others. A pinnacle in his career was his invitation in 1897 to Berlin. There, together with Diels, he founded the "Institute for Classical Studies," translated the three Tragedians, and published the Greek "Literature" and the "Bucolics." In 1915, he became rector. In 1919, he published "Plato," a landmark work on the great philosopher. This was followed by "Greek Metrics," his "Pindar," "Hellenistic Poetry in the Time of Callimachus," interpretative editions of comedies, "The Return of Odysseus," "Memoirs," "Works and Days" in a critical edition, and the two-volume "Religion of the Greeks," which he did not live to complete. Wilamowitz, a profound connoisseur of classical languages, papyrology, metrics, and epigraphy, and an erudite critic of texts, dedicated his life to the study of the ancient world, for which he provided a new, foundational perspective for philological science.