Martin Litchfield West

Martin Litchfield West (1937) is a scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology. He has written extensively on ancient Greek music, Greek tragedy, Greek lyric poetry, the relations between Greece and the ancient Near East, and the connexion between shamanism and early ancient Greek religion, including the Orphic tradition.

Publications

Monographs (selection)

• Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971, xv+256 pp, ARG. Review: Harter (1973).
  • Italian trans., Bologna, 1993.
• Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique Applicable to Greek and Latin Texts, Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1973, 155 pp, PDF.
  • Greek trans., Athens, 1989.
  • Italian trans., Palermo, 1991.
  • Hungarian trans., Budapest, 1999.
• Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1974, ix+198 pp, PDF, ARG. [1] Review: Romano (1976).
• Immortal Helen: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered on 30 April 1975, London: Bedford College, 1975, 18 pp.
• Greek Metre, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, xiv+208 pp, PDF. Reviews: Diggle (1984), Haslam (1986).
• The Orphic Poems, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, xii+275 pp. Reviews: Richardson (1985), Janko (1986).
  • Italian trans., Naples, 1993.
• The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: Its Nature, Structure, and Origins, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985, viii+193 pp.
• Introduction to Greek Metre, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, xi+90 pp, PDF.
• Studies in Aeschylus, Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1990, x+408 pp. [2] Review: Kovacs (1995).
• Ancient Greek Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992, xiii+410 pp; repr. with minor corr., 1994, PDF, PDF. Reviews: Barbera (1994), Beeman (1994), Pöhlmann (2000, DE), Feaver (2001), Johnson (2003).
  • Greek trans. St. Komnenos, Athens, 1999.
  • Muzyka starożytnej Grecji, trans. Anna Maciejewska, Krakow: Homini, 2003, Scribd. (Polish)
  • La musica greca antica, trans. Mariacarla De Giorgi, Lecce: Milella, 2007. (Italian)
• Die griechische Dichterin: Bild und Rolle, Stuttgart and Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1996, 48 pp. (German)
• The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, xxvi+662 pp, PDF. [3] [4] Reviews: Powell (1997), Dowden (2001).
• Studies in the Text and Transmission of the Iliad, Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001, 304 pp. [5] [6] Reviews: Rengakos (2002), Nagy (2003).
• Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford University Press, 2007, xiii+525 pp, ARG.
• The Making of the Iliad: Disquisition and Analytical Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2011, x+441 pp. [7] Reviews: Ford (2012), López-Ruiz (2012), Garner (2012), Wecowski (2012), Fowler (2012), Sammons (2013).
• Old Avestan Syntax and Stylistics: With an Edition of the Texts, Berlin and Boston: Walter De Gruyter, 2011, xi+182 pp, PDF, PDF. Review: fravahr.org (2011).
• Hellenica: Selected Papers on Greek Literature and Thought, vol. I: Epic, Oxford University Press, 2011, xii+451 pp. [8] Reviews: Rutherford (2012), McCollum (2012), Fowler (2012).
• Hellenica: Selected Papers on Greek Literature and Thought, vol. II: Lyric and Drama, Oxford University Press, 2013, xii+408 pp. Review: Coward (2014).
• Hellenica: Selected Papers on Greek Literature and Thought, vol. III: Philosophy, Music and Metre, Literary Byways, Varia, Oxford University Press, 2013. [9]
• The Making of the Odyssey, Oxford University Press, 2014, 336 pp. [10] [11]
• Full bibliography

Editions, commentaries and translations of classical texts

• Hesiod, Theogony, ed. with prolegomena and commentary by M.L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966, 459 pp.
• Fragmenta Hesiodea, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967, 236 pp.
• Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. 1 : Archilochus. Hipponax. Theognidea, ed. M. L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971; rev.ed., 1989, 256 pp.
• Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. 2 : Callinus. Mimnermus. Semonides. Solon. Tyrtaeus. Minora adespota, ed. M. L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972; rev.ed., 1992, 246 pp. Review: Haslam (1993).
• Sing Me, Goddess. Being the First Recitation of Homer's Iliad, trans. Martin West, London: Duckworth, 1971, 43 pp.
• Theognidis et Phocylidis fragmenta et adespota quaedam gnomica, ed. M. L. West, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1978, 49 pp.
• Hesiod, Works and Days, ed. with prolegomena and commentary by M.L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, 399 pp.
• Delectus ex Iambis et Elegis Graecis, ed. M. L. West, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980, 295 pp.
• Carmina Anacreontea, ed. Martin L. West, Leipzig: Teubner, 1984, 64 pp.; corr. repr., 1993.
• Euripides, Orestes, ed., trans. & comm. M. L. West, Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1987, 297 pp.
• Hesiod, Theogony, and Works and Days, trans., intro. & notes M. L. West, Oxford University Press, 1988, 79 pp, PDF, OL.
• Aeschyli Tragoediae cum incerti poetae Prometheo, recensuit Martin L. West, Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1990, 508 pp.
• Greek Lyric Poetry. The Poems and Fragments of the Greek Iambic, Elegiac, and Melic Poets (Excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) Down to 450 B.C., [verse translation], Oxford University Press, 1993, 213 pp.
• Homeri Ilias. Volumen prius rhapsodias I-XII continens, recensuit Martin L. West, Stuttgart and Leipzig: B.G. Teubner 1998, 372 pp.
• Homeri Ilias. Volumen alterum rhapsodias XIII-XXIV continens, recensuit Martin L. West, Leipzig and Munich: K.G. Saur, 2000, 396 pp.
• with Egert Pöhlmann, Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments Edited and Transcribed with Commentary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001, 222 pp. Reviews: Johnson (2003), Rocconi (2003).
• Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer, ed. & trans. Martin L. West, Harvard University Press, 2003.
• Greek Epic Fragments from the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, ed. & trans. Martin L. West, Harvard University Press, 2003, PDF.
• W. Spencer Barrett, Greek Lyric, Tragedy, and Textual Criticism: Collected Papers, ed. M. L. West, Oxford and New York, 2007, PDF. Papers dealing with Stesichorus, Pindar, Bacchylides and Euripides.
• The Hymns of Zoroaster: A New Translation Of The Most Ancient Sacred Texts Of Iran, London: I B Tauris, 2010, 182 pp, IA. [12]

Links

• Profile at All Souls College
• West at Wikipedia