LUCK, Georg Hans Bhawani

Date of Birth: February 17, 1926
Born City: Bern
Born State/Country: Switzerland
Parents: Hans, a government worker, & Hanna Von Ow L.
Date of Death: February 17, 2013
Death City: Towson
Death State/Country: MD
Married: Harriet Richards Greenough, 15 June 1958
Education:
Study at Sorbonne, 1949-50; A.M. Harvard, 1952; Ph.D. Univ. Bern, 1953.
Dissertation:
"Der akademiker Antichos" (Bern, 1953).
Professional Experience:
Instr. classics, Yale, 1952-53; Brown, 1953-55; Harvard, 1955-58; lector. Univ. Mainz, 1958-62; ordinarius, Univ. Bonn, 1962-71; prof. Classics, Johns Hopkins, 1971-90; chair, Classics Department, 1973-75; Guggenheim fellow, 1959-60; Swiss National Research Council Grant, 1976-77; vis. prof. Brown, 1969; Johns Hopkins 1970-71; UCLA, 1974; Fribourg, 1989; lecturer Smithsonian Institutions, 1992; ed. AJP, 1971-81.
Publications:
Der Akademiker Antiochos Noctes Romanae VII (Bern: Haupt, 1953) REVS: Gnomon XXVI 1953 484-486 Armstrong | MH XI 1954 249 Wehrli | CR N.S. V 1955 199 Kerferd | DLZ LXXVI 1955 169-171 Gigon | Paideia XII 1957 118-121 Grilli | TPh XX 1958 337-339 Henderickx | A&R III 1958 250 Grilli | JPh LVI 1959 425-427 Kristeller; “Die Dichterinnen der griechischen Anthologie,” MH XI (1954) 170-87; “Das Acanthisgedicht des Properz,” Hermes 83 (1955) 428-38; “Callimachus and Conopion,” CQ 50 (1956) 225-30; “Studia divina in vita humana. On Cicero's Dream of Scipio and Its Place in Graeco-Roman Philosophy,” HThR 49 (1956) 207-18; “Trygonions Grabschrift (Philodemos, A.P. 7, 222),” Philologus 100 (1956) 271-86; “Caesar als Schriftsteller,” Die Sammlung 12 (1957) 236-42; “The Cave and the Source. On the Imagery of Propertius III, I, 1-6,” CQ 51 (1957) 175-79; “Drei Vermutungen zu römischen Elegikern,” MH 14 (1957) 175-82; “Scriptor classicus,” CompLit 10 (1958) 150-58; “Zum Prooemium von Ovids Metamorphosen,” Hermes 86 (1958) 499-500; “Palladas, Christian or Pagan?,” HSCP 63 (1958) 455-71; “Mensa bei Properz,” Hermes 86 (1958) 126-27; “Conjectures oubliées d'un helléniste français,” RPh 33 (1959) 42-47; “Kids and Wolves. An Interpretation of Callimachus, fr. 202, 69-70 Pf.,” CQ 9 (1959) 34-37; “Textprobleme der Tristen,” Philologus 103 (1959) 100-13; The Latin Love Elegy (London: Methuen, 1959; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1960; 2nd ed., London: Methuen, 1969) trans.: Die römische Liebeselegie (Heidelberg: Winter, 1961) REVS: Erasmus XIII 1960 425-430 Eisenhut | CW LIII 1960 194 Putnam | CJ LV 1960 380-383 Levin | LEC XXVIII 1960 108 Desmet | CPh LV 1960 285-286 Avery | Gnomon XXXII 1960 515-519 Lee | AUMLA 1960 No 13 72-74 Quinn | CR X 1960 224-226 | Kenney AC XXIX 1960 475-477 Préaux | Phoenix XV 1961 55-57 MacKay | Latomus XX 1961 163 Le Bonniec | RPh XXXVI 1962 157 André | JCS X 1962 119-123 Takebe [en japon.] | Mnemosyne XV 1962 195-196 Enk | GGA CCXV 1963 176-190 Richter | CB XLII 1965 14 Rexine | G&R XVII 1970 105 Sewter | RBPh XLIX 1971 676 Granarolo; (German trans.): AC XXXI 1962 359-360 Préaux | AAHG XV 1962 95 Vretska | Gnomon XXXIV 1962 787-790 Bühler | RBPh XL 1962 912-914 Grimal | Latomus XXI 1962 629-630 Enk | GGA CCXV 1963 176-190 Richter | Gymnasium LXX 1963 89-94 Burck | Eos LIV 1964 211-213 Krókowski | Rev. da Fac. de Letras de Lisboa 3e Sér. VII 1963 285-287 Rosado Fernándes; “Epikur und seine Götter,” Gymnasium 67 (1960) 308-315; “Die Musen in der römischen Poesie,” Horizonte der Humanitas. Eine Freundesgabe für W. Wili zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (ed.) (Bern: Haupt, 1960) 77-89; “Marginalien zu Ovid,” Euphrosyne 3 (1961) 65-80; “Notes on the Language and Text of Ovid's Tristia,” HSCP 65 (1961) 243-61; “Ovidiana,” Philologus 106 (1962) 145-150 & 316; “Brief und Epistel in der Antike,” Altertum 7 (1961) 77-84; “Beiträge zum Text der römischen Elegiker,” RhM 105 (1962) 337-51; Hexen und Zauberei in der römischen Dichtung, Lebendige Antike (Zürich: Artemis-Verlag, 1962) REVS: Gnomon XXXV 1963 577-579 Wagenvoort; “Ueber Suetons Divus Titus,” RhM 107 (1964) 63-75; “Die Form der suetonische Biographie und die frühen Heiligenviten,” Mullus. Festschrift Th. Klauser (Münster: Aschendorff, 1964) 230-41; Ueber einige Interjektionen der lateinischen Umgangssprache. Kritische Beiträge zu Plautus und Terenz (Heidelberg: Winter, 1964) REVS: LEC XXXII 1964 309 Delande | REL XLII 1964 530 Nougaret | Latomus XXIII 1964 358 Collart | CR XVIII 1968 303-306 Griffith; “Zur Geschichte des Begriffs sapientia,” ABG 9 (1964) 203-15; “A New Approach to Virgil,” Latomus 24 (1965) 128-32; “Elemente der Umgangssprache bei Menander und Terenz,” RhM 108 (1965) 269-277; Ueber einige Interjektionen der lateinischen Umgangssprache. Kritische Beiträge zu Plautus und Terenz (Heidelberg: Winter, 1964) REVS: AC XXXIV 1965 302-303 Liénard | RPh XXXIX 1965 158 Ernout | Maia XVII 1965 199-202 Garuti | RBPh XLIII 1965 1167 Hyart | Paideia XX 1965 294-295 Pisani | Eos LV 1965 401-403 Safarewicz; “Notes on Catullus,” Latomus 25 (1966) 278-86; “Zur Deutung von Theokrits Thalysien,” MH 23 (1966) 186-89; “Über einige Typen des Gedichtanfangs bei Catull,” Euphrosyne (1967) 169-72; “Die Schrift vom Erhabenen und ihr Verfasser,” Arctos 5 (1967) 97-113; “Goethes Römische Elegien und die augusteische Liebeselegie,” Arcadia 2 (1967) 173-95; “Die fehlenden Verse im Lukantext,” RhM 112 (1969) 254-84; “König Midas und die orphischen Mysterien, II,” Hommages à Marcel Renard ed. By J. Bibauw (Brussels: 60 rue Colonel Chaltin, 1969) 470-77; “Witz und Sentiment im griechischen Epigramm,’ L'épigramme grecque (Vandœuvres-Genéve: Fond. Hardt, 1968) 387-411; Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte Ovids Bibl. der klass. Altertumswiss. N.F. ; XXIX (Heidelberg: Winter, 1969) REVS: CW LXIV 1970 27 Cunningham | Gymnasium LXXVII 1970 332-334 Borzsák | AC XL 1971 266 Viarre | Latomus XXX 1971 472 Bardon | CR XXI 1971 208-209 Winterbottom | CJ LXVII 1972 372-374 Oliver | Gnomon XLVI 1974 664-669 Dörrie; “The Textual History of Juvenal and the Oxford Lines,” HSCP 76 (1972) 217-32; “On Petronius' Bellum Civile,” <emajph< em=""> 93 (1972) 133-41: “Virgil and the Mystery Religions,” AJP 94 (1973) 147-66; “Probleme der römischen Liebeselegie in der neueren Forschung, I,3,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Joseph Vogt zu seinem 75. Geburtstag gewidmet, I : Von den Anfängen Roms bis zum Ausgang der Republik, 3 [Sprache und Literatur, 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr.], ed. H. Temporini (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1973) 361-68; “Parergon metricum,” JIES 1 (1973) 352-53; “Panaetius and Menander,” AJP 96 (1975) 256-68; “Aratea,” AJP 97 (1976) 213-34; “An Interpretation of Horace's Eleventh Epode,” ICS 1 (1976) 122-26; “On Cicero De fato 5 and Related Passages,” AJP 99 (1978) 155-58; “A Passage in Paulinus of Nola,” AJP 99 (1978) 37; “Disiecta membra. On the arrangement of Claudian's carmina minora,” ICS 4 (1979) 200-13; “Ne lateat ratio finem quaerentibus aevi...,” AJP 100 (1979) 531; “Notes on Propertius,” AJP 100 (1979) 73-93; “Der Mensch in der frühgriechischen Elegie,” Gnomosyne. Menschliches Denken und Handeln in der frühgriechischen Literatur. Festschrift für Walter Marg zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. G. Kurz, Dietram Mueller & W. Nicolai W. (München: Beck, 1981) 167-76; “Textual Criticism Today,” AJP 102 (1981) 165-94; “Notes on the Text of Ovid's Metamorphoses,” AJP 103 (1982) 47-61; “Naevius and Virgil,” ICS 8 (1983) 267-75; “Besuch in Rom,” Festschrift für Robert Muth zum 65. Geburtstag am 1. Januar 1981 dargebracht von Freunden und Kollegen, ed. P. Haendel & W. Meid (Innsbruck: Inst. für Sprachwiss., 1983) 231-36; “A Late Greek Manuscript in the Walters Art Gallery,” JWAG 41 (1983) 67-70; “A Stoic Cosmogony in Manilius (I, 149-172),” Mémorial André-Jean Festugiére. Antiquité païenne et chrétienne. Vingt-cinq études réunies et présentées par E. Lucchesi & H.D. Saffrey (Geneva: Cramer, 1984) 27-32; “Notes on the Vita Macrinae by Gregory of Nyssa,” The biographical works of Gregory of Nyssa. Proceedings of the Fifth international Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Mainz, 6-10 september 1982), ed. A. Spira (Cambridge, MA : Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1984) 21-32; “Vermutungen zu Ovids Epistulae ex Ponto,” Kontinuität und Wandel. Lateinische Poesie von Naevius bis Baudelaire. Franco Munari zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. U.J. Stache, W. Maaz & F. Wagner, Zur Textgeschichte und Textgestaltung (Hildesheim: Weidmann, 1986) 117-33; “Two Predictions of the End of Paganism,” Euphrosyne 14 (1986) 153-56; “Studien zur Textgeschichte Tibulls,” Texte und Textkritik. Eine Aufsatzsammlung , ed. Jürgen Dummer (Berlin: Akad.-Verl., 1987) 331-49; “Was Lucretius Really Mad?,” Euphrosyne 16 (1988) 289-94; Magie und andere Geheimlehren in der Antike ; mit 112 neu übersetzten und einzeln kommentierten Quellentexten Kröners Taschenausg. 489 (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1990) REVS: HA XXI 1990 79 ; Latomus 52 1993 928-929 N. Fick; “The Anapaests of the Octavia,” ICS 14 (1989) 135-44; “The Doctrine of Salvation in the Hermetic Writings,” Scent 8 (1991) 31-41; “Two Notes on Horace's Ars poetica, II, Studi di filologia classica in onore di Giusto Monaco, II : Letteratura latina dall'età arcaica all'età augustea (Palermo: Univ. di Palermo Fac. di Lettere e Filosofia, 1991) 1039-1042; “Stati Uniti d'America: la critica testuale greco-latina, I,” La filologia greca e latina nel secolo xx. Atti del congresso internazionale, Roma, Consilio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 17-21 settembre 1984, I & II (Pisa: Giardini, 1989) 235-61; “The Role of Periplecomenus in the Miles Gloriosus: A Case of ‘Plautinisches im Plautus’?,” Euphrosyne 20 (1992) 295-98; “Humor,” RLAC 16 (1992) 753-73; “Walter Willi (1900-1975),” Eikasmos 4 (1993) 379-83; “The ‘Way Out’: Philological Notes on the Transfiguration of Jesus,” Dissertatiunculae Criticae: Festschrift für Günther Christian Hansen, ed. Christian-Friedrich Collatz [et al.] (Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1998) 311-21; Ancient Pathways and Hidden Pursuits: Religion, Morals, and Magic in the Ancient World (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999) REVS.: BMCRev 2001 (1) : non paginé Radcliffe Edmonds ; Latomus 2001 60 (4) : 1041-1043 Nicole Boëls-Janssen ; Emerita 2002 70 (2) : 371-373 Francisco P. Díez de Velasco ; Exemplaria 2001 5 : 155-158 Francisco Socas ; JR 2002 82 (3) : 489-490 Larry J. Alderink; “Lucifer, Fallen Angel,” Euphrosyne n.s. 29 (2001) 297-318; “Ovid, Naugerius and We,” Exemplaria 6 (2002) 1-40; “On the Text of Ovid, Metamorphoses 15, 566,” Exemplaria 5 (2001) 119-20.
Notes:
Georg Luck was an internationally itinerant scholar in the 1950s and 1960s, long before this career pattern became common. After serving in the Swiss Army, he studied in Paris and Cambridge, Mass., but he returned to his native Bern for his doctoral work. He launched his professional career in the United States, teaching at Yale, Brown, and Harvard before moving to Germany in 1958 to take up a permanent position in Mainz. He then moved to Bonn before making his last move in 1971, across the Atlantic, to Johns Hopkins, where he succeeded Henry Rowell as professor of Latin. Though he retired in 1989 at a youthful 63, his scholarly output and intellectual and social engagement never flagged in retirement; he remained a regular and genial presence around the department and library until late in his last year.

Luck’s dissertation, on Antiochus of Ascalon, may not lead one to suspect that Latin poetry and related textual and cultural matters would occupy much of his life’s work. But so it was. The Latin Love Elegy was a pathbreaking study in its day, and continues to appear in the bibliographies of contemporary work on elegy. His Studien zur Textgeschichte Ovids underpinned his magisterial edition, translation, and commentary on the Tristia. Editions of Tibullus and the Corpus Tibullianum, and Lucan followed. At his death he was nearing completion of an edition of Ovid, Metamorphoses 15. He was also planning a revised English edition of a delightful early work on interjections in colloquial Latin (Über einige Interjektionen in der lateinischen Ungangsprache; kritische Beiträge zu Plautus unde Terenz). His scholarly interest in ancient magic, which received attention far beyond the confines of classics, may itself have grown from his engagement with elegy, as a pamphlet published in 1962 (Hexen und Zauberei in der römischen Dichtung) suggests. His annotated sourcebook of ancient texts on magic (Arcana Mundi) made this material readily available to teachers and students for the first time—and not only in the Anglosphere: editions were also published in Spanish, German, and Italian. It remains one of the best-selling scholarly titles of the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Apart from his scholarly output and teaching, he had an important, if quiet impact on the field of classics by serving for a decade as editor-in-chief of AJP. He resumed that position for a two-year interim in 1987, though this time his impact was less quiet. An editorial he printed on resuming the editorship (“AJP Today” AJP 108 (1987) vii-x) defined the kinds of work the journal would and would not accept for publication, stressing a “special attention will be paid to linguistics, epigraphy, papyrology, textual criticism, and other disciplines.” Luck wrote that the journal would be receptive to “new approaches, but the use of innovative methods is, in itself, not sufficient reason for publication. Mere speculations, or the application of new methods to old problems are not enough.” The editorial was taken as a sally in the “culture wars” of that decade, stirring a lively and sometimes acrimonious debate in the field and garnering press attention nationally—marking, perhaps, the one and only time that a scholarly classics journal made front-page news in The New York Times when the matter was the subject of a special session of the annual meeting of the APA. In the end, AJP left the institution where it had been founded over a century earlier.

Professor Luck’s interests extended widely and were by no means limited to antiquity. He lectured and left manuscripts in progress on topics as diverse as Rilke, psychotropic substances, and streets bearing the name “Römerstrasse,” among others. An accomplished classical guitarist, he played with and for any students and colleagues who had a musical bent. He graciously hosted departmental parties each May in his enormous and beautiful North Baltimore garden. As an oenophile, he did not permit any guest to escape from lunch without sharing a bottle, which was very pleasant but eliminated the possibility of doing real work in the afternoon.
Sources:
DAS 8:3:321; WhAm
Author: Matthew Roller

All Scholars

LUCK, Georg Hans Bhawani