en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrath_of_Homer
2 corrections found
German scholars such as Karl Lachmann and Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch proposed that the Iliad was a composite of originally unrelated poems that had been combined and improved by Homer.
This misstates Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch’s position. Nitzsch was a prominent opponent of the composite-poem theory and argued instead that the Iliad and Odyssey were unified creations of the same poet.
Full reasoning
Karl Lachmann did argue for a composite origin of the Iliad, but Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch did not. An authoritative biographical entry in Deutsche Biographie describes Nitzsch as "Vertreter der Einheit der homer. Epen" (a proponent of the unity of the Homeric epics) and "einer der entschiedensten Gegner Friedrich August Wolfs". It further says that Nitzsch saw the Iliad and Odyssey as "nach festem künstlerischem Plan gestaltete Schöpfungen desselben Dichters"—works shaped according to a fixed artistic plan by the same poet.
So the sentence is inaccurate because it groups Nitzsch together with Lachmann as if both advanced the same composite-poem theory. In fact, Nitzsch is well known for arguing the opposite side in the Homeric Question.
2 sources
- Deutsche Biographie - Nitzsch, Gregor Wilhelm
"N. profilierte sich als Vertreter der Einheit der homer. Epen und als einer der entschiedensten Gegner Friedrich August Wolfs. Er sah in Ilias und Odyssee nach festem künstlerischem Plan gestaltete Schöpfungen desselben Dichters..."
- The Homeric Question - The Cambridge Guide to Homer
This essay addresses the so-called "Homeric Question" ... which dominated Homeric scholarship in the nineteenth century and was largely concerned with authorship and the relationship of the Iliad and Odyssey to other known Archaic epic poetry.
he became assistant professor of classics at the University of British Columbia.
Sources on MacKay’s career say he was appointed associate professor at UBC in 1941, not assistant professor. A 1945 official Guggenheim listing also identifies him as an associate professor at UBC.
Full reasoning
This claim conflicts with biographical sources on MacKay’s career.
- The University of Toronto Archives’ authority record for MacKay says he was "Appointed Associate Professor of Classics at University of British Columbia in 1941".
- An official archived Canadian government appendix listing Guggenheim fellowships identifies him in 1945 as "Louis Alexander MacKay, Associate Professor of Classics, University of British Columbia".
Because the article specifically says that in 1941 he became assistant professor at UBC, while these sources identify his 1941 appointment/rank as associate professor, the rank in the article is incorrect.
3 sources
- MacKay, Louis Alexander - University of Toronto Archives
"Appointed Associate Professor of Classics at University of British Columbia in 1941 and in 1948 Professor of Latin at University of California, Berkeley."
- ARCHIVED - APPENDIX XI, GUGGENHEIM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED TO CANADIAN FELLOWS SINCE 1940
"1945 ... Mr. Louis Alexander MacKay, Associate Professor of Classics, University of British Columbia: A study of the structure and composition of Homer's Iliad."
- UC In Memoriam, 1981
"For the next seven years he was Associate Professor, and then became Professor, of Classics at the University of British Columbia."