All Scholars
LANE, Eugene Numa
- Date of Birth: August 13, 1936
- Born City: Washington
- Born State/Country: DC
- Parents: George Sherman, professor of German philology, & Colette Resweber L.
- Date of Death: January 01, 2007
- Married: Carol Downes Gault, 22 August 1964
- Education:
A.B. Princeton, 1958; M.A. Yale, 1960; Ph.D., 1962; Fulbright fell., 1961
- Dissertation:
"A Re-Study of the God Men" (Yale, 1962); publ as “A Re-Study of the God Men I: The Epigraphic and Sculptural Evidence,” Berytus 15 (1964) 5-58; “A Re-Study of the God Men II: The Numismatic and Allied Evidence,” Berytus 17 (l967-68), 13-47; “A Re-Study of the God Men III: Conclusions,” Berytus 17 (1967-8) 81-106.
- Professional Experience:
Asst. prof. classics, University of Virginia, 1962-6; asso. prof. classics, University of Missouri, Columbia, 1966-76; prof., 1976-99; chair, Dept. Classics, 1981-4; ACLS grantee, 1972-3, 1976, 1986-7; Am. Phials. Soc., 1972-3, 1986-7; NEH, 1979.
- Publications:
“An Unpublished Inscription from Lakonia,” Hesperia 31 (1962) 396; “A Group of Steles from Byzantium,” Muse 3 (1969) 35-41; “Three New Inscriptions from Ayasören,” AS 20 (l970) 51-3; “Two Votive Hands in Missouri,” Muse 4 (1970) 43-48; Corpus monumentorum religionis dei Menis I: The Monuments and Inscriptions, Ét. prélimin. aux relig. orient. dans l'empire rom. XIX (Leiden: Brill, 1971). REVS: REA LXXIV 1972 367-368 Pouilloux | Emerita XLI 1973 549-550 Mendoza | BVAB XLVIII 1973 237 Bijvanck-Quarles van Ufford | RSA II 1972 275-279 Geraci | Latomus XXXI 1972 932-933 Malaise | CR XXV 1975 160-161 Griffiths; “A Syncretistic Statuette,” Muse 8 (1974) 34-7; Corpus monumentorum religionis dei Menis II: The Coins and Gems, Ét. prélimin. aux relig. orient. dans l'empire rom. XIX (Leiden: Brill, 1975). REVS: OLZ LXXIV 1979 458-460 Delling; “Two Notes on Lydian Topography,” AS 25 (1975) 105-10; “The Italian Connection: An Aspect of the Cult of Men,” Numen 22 (1975) 235-9; Corpus monumentorum religionis dei Menis III: Interpretations and Testimonia, Ét. prélimin. aux relig. orient. dans l'empire rom. XIX (Leiden: Brill, 1976). REVS: AArchHung XXX 1978 292-293 Castiglione | Gnomon LI 1979 280-287 Turcan | OLZ LXXV 1980 32-34 Delling; “A Statuette of Attis and his Cult,” (with Bill Barnes) Muse 11 (1977) 38-46; “The Temple Type of Prostanna: A Query,” Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens. Festschrift für Friedrich Karl Doerner zum 65. Geburtstag am 28. Februar 1976, ed. S. Sahin, E. Schwertheim & J. Wagner (Leiden: Brill, 1978) 540-545; Corpus Monumentorum Religionis dei Menis (CMRDM), IV: Supplementary Men-inscriptions from Pisidia, Ét. prélimin. aux relig. orient. dans l'empire rom. XIX (Leiden: Brill, 1978). REVS: OLZ LXXVII 1982 49 Delling | REA LXXXII 1980 118-119 Roesch; “Sabazius and the Jews in Valerius Maximus: A Re-Examination,” JRS 69 (1979) 35-58; “Towards a Definition of the Iconography of Sabazius,” Numen 27 (l980) 9-33; “Corpus Monumentorum Religionis Dei Menis: Addenda, 1971-1981,” SCent 1 (1981) 193-209; “On the Date of PGM IV,” SCent 4 (1981) 25-27; “New Ideas about the Destruction of Paphos,” (with David Soren) RDAC (1981) 178-183; “A Spoon for Hecate,” Muse 16 (1982) 50-5; “A New Fragment of the Dedicatory Inscription of Apollo Hylates,” RDAC (1983) 242-4 (appendix to article by David Soren); “Nachlese zum Mondgott Mên,” (with Dieter Salzmann) MDAI(I) 34 (1984) 355-70; “Two Portrayals of the Moon-god Men,” Muse 18 (1984) 55-61; Corpus cultus Iovis Sabazii II: The Other Monuments and Literary Evidence, Ét. prélimin. aux relig. orient. dans l'empire rom. C (Leiden: Brill, 1985). REVS: CW LXXX 1987 461 Ramage | SCent VI 1987-1988 58-60 Hock; “Sabazius-Artifacts from Cyprus,” RDAC (1986) 197-201; “A Men-Stele from Phrygian Hierapolis: Further Considerations,” Epigraphica Anatolica 7 (1986) 107-109; “Παστός,” Glotta 66 (1988) 100-123; Corpus Cultus Iovis Sabazii (CCIS), III : Conclusions Études prélimin. aux relig. orientales dans l'empire rom. C (Leiden: Brill, 1989). REVS: Kernos III 1990 391-392 Mora | CR XLI 1991 124-126 Dowden | CW LXXXV 1991-1992 717-718 Edlund-Berry; “A Bronze Base from Syria,” Muse 23-24 (1989-90) 74-81; “Men, A Neglected Cult of Roman Asia Minor,” ANRW II, 18, 3 (1990) 2162-74; “Vorschlag zum Verständnis einer Sühneinschrift aus Bergama,”Epigraphica Anatolica 15 (1990) 120; “Six Plaques of the Danube-Rider Cult,” Muse 27-28 (1993-4); “On the Use of the Word “Pastos” in Patristic Greek,” inDiscourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek, ed. S. E. Porter and D. A. Carson (Sheffield 1995); “The Name of Cybele's Priests the ‘Galloi’” in Cybele, Attis, and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M. J. Vermaseren (ed.) Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 131 (Leiden: Brill, 1996); “Chrysippus, Philodemus, and the God Men,” ZPE 117 (1997) 65-6; “A New Coin of Prostanna,” Numismatic Circular 109:4 (August 2001) 246-47; The History of Zonaras: from Alexander Severus to the Death of Theodosius the Great (trans. with Thomas Michael Banchich) (London: Routledge, 2009). REVS: BMCRev 2010 (1): n.p. Anthony Kaldellis | CR 2010 n. s. 60 (1): 101-103 L. Michael Whitby | Koinonia 2010 34: 270-273 Andrea Maurizio Martolini | Latomus 2013 72 (4): 1107-1109 David Woods
Festschrift: Ancient Journeys: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Numa Lane, ed. Cathy Callaway (Stoa Consortium, 2002) [http://www.stoa.org/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Stoa:text:2001.01.0021:section=1].)
- Notes:
Gene Lane graduated as salutatorian from his class in Princeton and after a brief stint in Charlottesville, taught at the University of Missouri for 34 years. He was known for his modesty, which was entirely in keeping with his character and his identity as a teacher and scholar. He was at bottom a kind man who saw himself not as a personality or man of importance, but as a (gruffly rigorous) educator. He took his teaching very seriously, which did not preclude endearing antics in the classroom: his “participation” exercises to teach Greek accents were legendary among students. They were also, along with much else that only Gene was brave enough to do in the classroom, effective. He expected effort from his students and did not scruple to fail them when they failed themselves; but among those willing to commit to the project of learning (many of whom are now accomplished scholars in their own right), Gene was the most esteemed of the Missouri faculty.
Part of the loyalty he inspired was a function of Gene’s prodigious learning. He was one of that generation and type of old-school scholars who “knew everything.” He spoke a Greek so fluent as to pass for a native speaker, and Gene on his many trips to his beloved Greece would take enormous delight in striking up conversations with locals, stumping them about where this perfect, ever so slightly accented Greek came from. He was fluent in German, French, and Italian as well and commanded the classical languages with prepossessing authority.
His numerous articles treated inscriptions, coins, cult statuary, and historical questions. Gene was a scrupulous, exacting scholar, and his care for accuracy carried on into all aspects of his professional life. He was a corrector, a habit that can be plenty annoying to the corrected. But what made it all bearable was the transparency of his motives when adjusting the misconceptions of students and colleagues. Gene’s underlying conviction was always this: if the ancient languages, and the blood, sorrows, and triumphs of the human history behind them, mattered as we claim they do, it mattered that we get them right. His famous punctiliousness was a persistent gesture of homage.
By instinct a political progressive, he crusaded tirelessly for humane government. He loved nature and was an expert birder. He knew the parks and rivers and backwaters of Missouri intimately. Summers were spent at his family cottage in Little Switzerland, NC, where he and Carol would delight in walks through the spectacular rhododendron forests of Roan Mountain and occasional slides down the cascades of Linville Gorge.
- Sources:
Daniel M. Hooley, APA Newsletter (Fall 2007) 27-8; WhAm 48 (1994); DAS 8,3
- Author: Daniel M. Hooley
