• Date of Birth: February 06, 1897
  • Born City: Westbury on Severn
  • Born State/Country: Gloucestershire, England
  • Parents: Humphrey, a headmaster, and Caroline, a teacher, K.
  • Date of Death: January 21, 1982
  • Death City: Bristol
  • Death State/Country: England
  • Married: Johanna W. F. Kraft, 1928
  • Education:

    B.A. St. John's Coll. Cambridge 1920.

  • Professional Experience:

    asst. to the Professor of Greek, U. of Glasgow, 1921-2; lecturer, 1922-44; Henry Overton Wills Prof. Greek, University of Bristol. 1944-62; vis. prof. Cornell, 1954; fell., British Academy, 1955; Royal Society of Literature, 1957; vis. prof. Brandeis, 1959, 1962-3; Sather Professor, Berkeley, 1960-1; D.-ès-L., Université Aix-Marseille, 1961; vis. prof. UC Santa Barbara, 1963-4; ASCSA, 1953-4

  • Publications:

     “The Rhythmus of Pindar,” CR 42 (1928) 51-53; In the Mountains of Greece (London: Methuen, 1933). REVS: JHS 1933 305 | CR 1933 228 Woodward; “The Prometheus,” JHS55 (1934) 14-20; “The Supplices and Pre-Aeschylean Tragedy, PCA 33 (1938) 37-39;  “The Final Scenes of the Phoenissae,” CR 53 (1939) 104-111; “Sophocles, Statistics and theTrachiniae,” AJP 62 (1939) 178-93; Greek Tragedy. A Literary Study (London: Methuen, 1939, 1961; repr. Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954). REVS: CR 1940 79-80 Winnington-Ingram  | AJP 1942 251-253 Schlesinger | RPh 1942 78-79 Chantraine | CW XXXV 1941-1942 284 Highet | JHS 1941 44 | CPh 1942 107 Smith | JHI XVI 1955 283 | PACA V 1962 44-45 Webster | AUMLA 1962 No 18 233-235 Gellie; (Spanish translation: A tragédia grega. Estudo literário, trans. E Coutinho & J.M. Castro (Coimbra: Arménio Amado, 1972). REVS: Humanitas XXIII-XXIV 1971-1972 565-570 Louro Fonseca; “Rhythm, Metre and Black Magic,” PCA 36 (1941) 14-16; “Rhythm, Metre and Black Magic,” CR 56 (1942) 99-108; The GreeksA Study of the Character and History of An Ancient Civilization, and of the People Who Created It (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1951). REVS:  AC XXI 1952 199-201 Van Compernolle | CW XLV 1952 187 van Hook | CJ XLVII 1952 247 Couch | JCS I 1953 155-157 Kinugasa | Hermeneus XXIV 1953 100 Knorringa | TG LXV 1952 393-394 Thiel | ZAnt IX 1959 311-312 Smerdel; German translation: Die Griechen. Von der Wirklichkeit eines geschichtlichen Vorbilds, trans. H. Hentig (Stuttgart: Klett, 1957; rev. ed., Munich: Prestel, 1978). REVS: LEC XXV 1957 376 Gilles | Gnomon XXX 1958 306-307 Schwyzer | TG LXXI 1958 389 Sprey | ASSPh XVII 1957 159 Kunz | AAHG XII 1959 80-82 Gschnitzer | RBPh XXXVII 1959 869 Lurquin | Gymnasium LXVI 1959 90-92 Jäkel | RBPh XXXVIII 1960 200-202 van den Bruwaene | HZ CXCIX 1964 569-572 Gundert | AW X,1 1979 61-62; Dutch translation: De Griekse beschaving, trans. S.S. Mooy-Valk (Zeist: De Haan, 1958). REVS: Hermeneus XXIX 1958 156-157 | MPh LXIV 1959 119 Verdenius Wallinga; French trans. Les Grecs, autoportrait d'une civilization, trans. C.H. Vossen (Paris: Arthaud, 1959); Italian trans, I Greci  (Firenze: Sansoni, 1958). REVS: Maia XI 1959 82-83 Lagorio | RB LXX 1960 696 Wankenne | Hum(RES) Lettres class. XXXVI 1959-1960, 6 40 Guillon | BCLF XV 1960 602; Spanish translation: Los griegos, trans. D.L. Garasa, rev. & trans. Ed. Prieto (Buenos Aires: Ed. Universitaria, 1962). REVS: REC IX 1965 209-211 Bracelis; “The Idea of God in Aeschylus and Sophocles,” in La notion du divin depuis Homère jusqu'à Platon, intro. by H.J. Rose, Fondation Hardt pour l'étude de l'antiquité classique, Vandœuvres-Genève Entretiens sur l'ant. class., I (Paris : Klincksieck, 1954) 169-89; “The Dance in Greek Tragedy,” JHS 75 (1955) 36-41; Form and Meaning in Drama. A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet (London: Methuen, 1956). REVS: CW L 1956 62 McCarthy | RPh XXXI 1957 286-288 Romilly | RFIC XXXV 1957 77-78 Rostagni | CR N.S. VII 1957 207-209 Lucas | Gnomon XXIX 1957 588-592 Imhof | CJ LIII 1957 139-142 Swanson | JHS LXXVIII 1958 132-134 Griffith | AJPh LXXIX 1958 79-84 Musurillo | CPh LIII 1958 128-131 Calder | Phoenix XII 1958 71-74 Kirkwood; Sophocles, Dramatist and Philosopher. Three Lectures (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: King's College, 1958). REVS: RFIC XXXVI 1958 288-293 Maddalena | DUJ XX 1958-1959 39-41 Garton | JCS VII 1959 178-181 Nakamura [en japon.] | CW LII 1959 155 Rexine | AJPh LXXX 1959 324-325 Musurillo | Gnomon XXXI 1959 167-169 Kamerbeek | JHS LXXIX 1959 163 Webster | CPh LIV 1959 199-200 Calder | Hermathena XCIII 1959 91-92 Hinds | CR X 1960 23-24 Stevens | CJ LV 1960 372 Else | Phoenix XIV 1960 176 Whitman | DUJ XX 1958-1959 39-41 Garton | RBPh XXXVIII 1960 1217 Lucas | AFC VIII 1961-1963 [1964] 217-219 Gini; P.D. Arnott, An Introduction to the Greek Theatre, foreword by Kitto (London: Macmillan, 1959); Form and Meaning in Drama (London: Methuen, 1960; 3rd ed. (London: Methuen, 1960). REVS: AUMLA 1962 No 17 93-94 Gellie | Dioniso XXXV, 2 1961 111-112 Garzya; “Le déclin de la tragédie à Athènes et en Angleterre,” in Le théâtre tragique, ed. J. Jacquot et al. (Paris: Ed. du CNRS, 1962) 65-73; “Catharsis,” in The Classical Tradition. Literary and Historical Studies in Honor of H. Caplan, ed. L. Wallach (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966) 133- 147; Poiesis. Structure and Thought, Sather Class. Lect. 36 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966). REVS: CW LX 1966 65 Wolfe | SicGymn XX 1967 313-315 Cataudella | Gnomon XXXIX 1967 113-116 Davison | LEC XXXV 1967 86 Walbrecq | Phoenix XXI 1967 137-141 Lattimore | CPh LXII 1967 264-266 Golden | CR XVIII 1968 187-190 Baldry | CompLit XX 1968 265-268 Fontenrose | AJPh LXXXIX 1968 483-487 Herington | AUMALA No. 29 1968 66-68 Kidd | Helmantica XX 1969 169-170 González Garcia; “Aristotle and Fourth Century Tragedy,” in For Service to Classical Studies. Essays in Honor of Francis Letters, ed. M. Kelly (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1966) 113-129; “The Significance of the Gods in Greek Tragedy,” Nuusbrief 12,2 (1967) 2-4; “Drama in the Life of Athens. An Historical Perspective,” Nuusbrief 12,2 (1967) 5-8; “Political Thought in Aeschylus,” Dioniso 43 (1969) 159-167; “The Rhesus and Related Matters,” YCS 25 (1977) 317-350; G. Murray, Euripides and His Age, intro. by Kitto (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965). REVS: Hermathena CII 1966 102 Stanford; La notion du divin, depuis Homère jusqu'à Platon. Sept exposés & discussions , by H.J. Rose, P. Chantraine, B. Snell, O. Gigon, F. Chapouthier,  W.F. Verdenius & Kitto,  Fond. Hardt pour l'Étude de l'ant. class. Entretiens I (Vandœuvres-Genève, 1954); Three Tragedies. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, trans. into Engl. verse by Kitto (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962; new ed. with intrp. & notes by Edith Hall, 1994). REVS: CW LVI 1962 48 Arnott | PACA VI 1963 66-68 Letters | CR XIII 1963 219 Lucas | Hermathena XCVII 1963 135-137 Hinds | CJ LIX 1964 182-183 Best | BMCRev 5 1994 502-506 T. Keen.

  • Notes:

    "Kitto," as he liked to be called, studied papyri for a year after graduation from Cambridge and while a lecturer at Glasgow published his first article, which was on Pindar.  His first book was a charming travelogue of western Greece resulting from a tour he took with his wife.  His next book, Greek Tragedy, accessible and valuable to lay readers and scholars alike, was reprinted over the next twenty years and established his reputation as a major authority on Greek drama. Form and Meaning in Drama takes a broad perspective on 

  • Author: Ignotus / a