Lattimore, Richmond

Richmond Lattimore, in full Richmond Alexander Lattimore, (born May 6, 1906, Paotingfu, China—died Feb. 26, 1984, Rosemont, Pa., U.S.), American poet and translator renowned for his disciplined yet poetic translations of Greek classics.

Lattimore graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and from the University of Oxford in 1932. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois (1935). While in college, Lattimore wrote poetry that touched on Greek, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse tradition. He later focused on composing lyric poetry: as a classical scholar, he would equate the process of writing lyrics with that of interpreting texts. His translations include Homer’s Iliad (1951) and Odyssey (1967), and The Four Gospels and the Revelation (1979); he coedited, with David Grene, Complete Greek Tragedies (1959). His translations of the works of Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Pindar were particularly highly praised. Lattimore’s version of the Iliad is widely regarded as the authoritative contemporary translation.

Lattimore was a professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr College from 1935 to 1971. A collection of his poetry, Poems from Three Decades, appeared in 1972. He also wrote criticism, such as Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy (1964).