• Date of Birth: February 27, 1860
  • Born City: Copenhagen
  • Born State/Country: Denmark
  • Parents: Andreas Georg, a physician, & Clara Wilhelmene Sørensen
  • Date of Death: August 22, 1935
  • Death City: Haraldsgave, Bagsværd, Copenhagen
  • Death State/Country: United States
  • Married: Ellen Sophie Benzon, 1887
  • Education:

    Study at Copenhagen; Ph.D., 1891.

  • Dissertation:

    Moderene Pindarfortolkning: Kritiske og positive Bidrag (Copenhagen, 1891).

  • Professional Experience:

    Asso. prof. Copenhagen, 1892-1905; extraord. prof. 1905-17; ordinarius, 1917-26; member, Society of Sciences, 1903; president, 1933-4; chair, Carlsberg Foundation Executive Board, 1926-33.

  • Publications:

    De manumission servorum apud Graecos, qualem ex inscriptionibus cognoscimus (Copenhagen, 1887); Catuls Digtning i forhold til den tidligere græske og latinske Litteratur (Copenhagen, 1887); Guderne hos Vergil (Copenhagen, 1887); Fra den romerske Kejsertid: Kulturbilleder (Copenhagen, 1900, 1903); Romersk Statsforvaltning: fremstillet til Brug for Studerende (Copenhagen, 1903); Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1903-27); Græsk og romersk Religion (Copenhagen, 1907); Kristendommens Oprindelse (Copenhagen, 1908); Pindar som Digter og Menneske: En Skizze (Copenhagen, 1910); Udvalgte Afhandlinger (Copenhagen, 1911); Diodors romerske Aarbøger til Aar 302 før Kristi Fødsel (Copenhagen, 1912); Paulus som forfatter og tænker (Copenhagen, 1913); Æschines' og Demosthenes' Taler for Kransen (Copenhagen, 1917); Christendommens oprindelse (Copenhagen, 1919); Atheisme i det antike hedenskab(Copenhagen, 1919; English trans. Atheism in Pagan Antiquity (London, 1922)); Søren Kierkegaards samlede Værker(Copenhagen, 1920-36); Tzetzes de metris Pindaricis (Copenhagen, 1925); Die Überlieferung des Cyrillglossars(Copenhagen, 1936). 

  • Notes:

    In 1887 Drachmann competed successfully for a professorship at the University of Kristiana in Oslo, but the position went to a Norwegian, L.B. Stenersen (1843-1927). Drachmann wrote on Roman state law, early Christianity & the epistles of Paul. He is best known to the world as the co-editor of the first edition of Kierkegaard’s collected works (1920-36), but best known to classicists as the editor of the scholia to Pindar. After reading his dissertation on modern interpretations of Pindar, B.L. Gildersleeve (1831-1924) called him “The bold Norseman, who made a piratical descent some years ago on the symmetrical castles which the precious stones of the Epinikian Odes.” His views were popular in his lifetime and he was a notable president of the Society of Sciences.    

  • Sources:

    B.L. Gildersleeve, Selections from the Brief mention of B.L. Gidersleeve, ed. C.W.E. Miller (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1930) 120; H. Raeder, A.B.D. Tale holdt I Videnskabernes Selskalb (1935) 1-14; bibl. 15-19; C. Hoeg, BJ 271 (1939) 42-54.

  • Author: Ward Briggs