Geoffrey Kirk
Geoffrey Kirk | |
|---|---|
 Kirk in 1953 by Antony Barrington Brown | |
| Born | 3 December 1921 Nottingham, England |
| Died | 10 March 2003 (aged 81) Rake, West Sussex, England |
| Spouses |
|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Clare College, Cambridge |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Classics |
| Institutions |
|
| Doctoral students | Nick Lowe |
| Main interests | Ancient Greek literature |
| Notable works | Heraclitus: the Cosmic Fragments, 1954 The Iliad: a Commentary, 1985–1993 |
| Influenced | |
Geoffrey Stephen Kirk,
Born into a
Kirk began his career as a
Early life
Geoffrey Stephen Kirk was born in December 1921 in
Military service and return to Cambridge
In 1941, after only one year at
Kirk served in the Levant Schooner Flotilla,[6] an Allied naval organisation operating in the Aegean Sea.[4] He rose to command a caïque, one of the Aegean fishing boats which were used by the Allies to stage landings on the Greek coast.[2] Having learnt some modern Greek, he distinguished himself through his communication with Greek resistance forces[6] and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in August 1945.[4][7] Later in life, he reflected on the events of his wartime service in a 1997 memoir entitled Towards The Aegean Sea.[3]
After the
Career
Beginnings at Trinity Hall
Kirk's first academic position was a
He then took up a permanent position at Cambridge. Working as an assistant lecturer in
Professorships in the United States and England
In 1965, Kirk returned to the
Having spent five years in North America, Kirk returned to the
In 1975, while serving as the Regius Professor, Kirk's marriage to his wife was dissolved. He then married Kirsten Ricks, the former wife of the literary critic Christopher Ricks, in September of the same year. Although the pair did not have any children, he acquired four stepchildren from Kirsten's first marriage.[2]
Retirement and death
Kirk retired from his teaching duties in 1982. Continuing for some time to live at their house in Woodbridge, Suffolk, he and his wife later moved to Bath and finally settled in Fittleworth, West Sussex.[6] Much of his retirement was taken up by work on a large-scale commentary on Homer's Iliad. Intended to be the crowning achievement of his academic career,[2] the book was published in six volumes between 1985 and 1993. While he was the sole author of the first two volumes, the remaining ones were published in co-operation with fellow classicists Mark W. Edwards, Richard Janko,[10] Nicholas Richardson, and John B. Hainsworth.[11]
In his retirement, Kirk increasingly suffered from
Legacy
Kirks's reputation as a classical scholar was based initially on his work on pre-Socratic philosophy. His first book (Heraclitus: the Cosmic Fragments, 1954) was well received among the scholars community. Gregory Vlastos, a leading interpreter of Plato, remarked that it "compell[ed] one to reconsider many things one has previously taken for granted".[12] Co-authored with John Raven, his 1959 book The Presocratic Philosophers became, in the words of Hellenist Hugh Lloyd-Jones, "an invaluable substitute" for previous treatments of the topic.[8]
From about 1960, his research focus lay with the
Selected publications
- Heraclitus (1954). Heraclitus: the Cosmic Fragments. Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-13667-9.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - The Presocratic Philosophers. edited with ISBN 978-0-521-27455-5.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link - Kirk, G. S. (1962). The Songs of Homer. Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-05890-2.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Euripides (1970). Bacchae. New York. ISBN 978-0-13-055285-3.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen (1973). Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures. Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-09802-1.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - The Iliad: a Commentary. ed. 6 vol. Cambridge. 1985–1993. ISBN 978-0-521-28171-3.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link
References
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 2004, p. 141.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Easterling 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f "Geoffrey Kirk". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ a b c d "Professor G. S. Kirk – The Register – Obituary". The Times. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ Hugh Lloyd-Jones, "Geoffrey Stephen Kirk 1921–2003" (obituary), thebritishacademy.ac.uk, accessed 11 December 2022
- ^ a b c d e f g "Obituary – Professor G. S. Kirk". The Independent. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ "No. 37220". The London Gazette. 10 August 1945. p. 4124.
- ^ a b c Lloyd-Jones 2004, p. 145.
- ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 2004, p. 147.
- ^ Willcock 1993.
- ^ Mund-Dopchie 1995.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 2004, p. 144.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 2004, p. 148.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8.) (subscription required)
{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (2004). "Geoffrey Kirk". Proceedings of the British Academy (124): 141–8.
- Mund-Dopchie, Monique (1995). "Brian Hainsworth, The Iliad : a Commentary. Vol. ΙII : Books 9- 12. Nicholas Richardson, The Iliad : a Commentary. Vol. VI : Books 21–24" (PDF). L'Antiquité classique.
- Willcock, M. M. (1993). "Richard Janko: The Iliad: a Commentary, Vol. IV: Books 13–16. Mark W. Edwards: The Iliad: a Commentary, Vol. V: Books 17–20" (PDF). S2CID 246878230. (subscription required)
