David Grene

David Grene(13 April 1913 – 10 September 2002) was an Irish American professor ofclassicsat theUniversity of Chicagofrom 1937 until his death. He was a co-founder of theCommittee on Social Thoughtand is best known for his translations ofancient Greek literature.

Life

David Grene was born inDublin.He studied atTrinity College Dublinand was awarded hisMAin 1936. His translations includeHerodotus'Histories,Aeschylus'Prometheus BoundandSeven Against Thebes,Sophocles'Oedipus Rex,Electra,andPhiloctetesandEuripides'sHippolytus.Grene was a close friend and colleague of philosopherAllan Bloomand Nobel laureateSaul Bellow.

One of Grene's memoirs,Of Farming and Classics,was published posthumously by theUniversity of Chicago Pressin 2006. From 1938 to 1961, he was married toMarjorie Glicksman Grene,the philosopher, who worked on the family farms, first in Illinois, and later in Ireland, as well as writing onexistentialism;she was the mother of Ruth and Nicholas Grene.

Family

Ruth Greneis a professor of plant physiology atVirginia Tech.Nicholas Greneis Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, where his father took his first degree. After divorcing Marjorie, Grene marriedEthel Weiss,and fathered the twins,Gregory Grene(lead singer and accordionist for Irish jig-punk bandThe Prodigals), andAndrew Grene,who was working for the United Nations when he died in the2010 Haiti earthquake;Andrew's body was confirmed by theDepartment of Foreign Affairson 19 January 2010 to have been found in the wreckage of Haiti's destroyed UN building.Grene had been meeting with the head of the UN in Haiti at the time of his death.The body of Andrew Grene was brought home toBelturbet,County Cavan on 30 January 2010 and buried beside his father after a funeral the following day. A charity, the Andrew Grene Foundation, has been set up in his memory.

Translations and edited works

• Three Greek tragedies,Aeschylus'sPrometheus bound,Sophocles'sOedipus Rex,Euripides'sHippolytus,The University of Chicago Press, 1942.
• Greek Tragedies,edited and translated by David Grene andRichmond Lattimore,3 volumes, works ofAeschylus,Sophocles,andEuripides,University of Chicago Press,1960.
• The Complete Greek Tragedies,edited and translated by David Grene andRichmond Lattimore,7 volumes, New York, Modern Library, 1960.
• Antigone,edited and translated by David Grene and edited by Richmond Lattimore. With supplementary materials prepared by Walter James Miller, New York, Washington Square Press, 1970.
• The History,byHerodotus,University of Chicago Press, 1987
• The Oresteia,by Aeschylus, translated by David Grene andWendy Doniger O'Flaherty,with introductions by David Grene, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, andNicholas Rudall,The University of Chicago Press, 1989.
• The Peloponnesian War,byThucydides,the complete Hobbes translation, with notes and a new introduction by David Grene, University of Chicago Press, 1989.

External links

• University of Chicago News Release
• New York Times obituary
• Guide to the David Grene Papers 1948-2002at theUniversity of Chicago Special Collections Research Center