The Irishman E.R. Dodds (1893–1979), Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford from 1936 to 1960 and author of The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley 1951) and other landmark works, was one of the greatest classical scholars of his time. This volume examines Dodds’ contributions to different areas of classical scholarship, but it is not confined to Dodds the classicist: it also considers his interest in psychic research, his relations with W.B. Yeats and Louis MacNeice (Dodds, who wrote poetry himself, was personally acquainted with both as well as with W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot) and his little-known involvement with the reform of German education after the Second World War (for which, see the chapter by David Phillips).
Dodds’ autobiography stressed the dividedness of his life (Missing Persons: An Autobiography (Oxford 1977)); by contrast, this volume suggests and explores interconnections between Dodds’ various interests and activities. Akey focal point consists in a fascination with irrational elements, and Dodds’ stance as a rational student of human irrationality, perceived as a threat in both ancient and modern times, is investigated from various angles in the volume. In addition, the volume offers a fresh assessment of Dodds’ scholarship and its impact by an array of leading experts on the subjects about which Dodds wrote from Greek religion and literature to Plato and Neoplatonism to the religious world of late antiquity.
Dodds’ appointment at Oxford as Regius Professor was a pivotal moment in his career. Christopher Stray’s chapter, coming after the introduction, supplies a larger context for the subsequent discussions of Dodds’ writings by examining the evolution of his scholarship at Oxford in the light of the earlier stages of his professional life. Dodds’ difficult relationship with Oxford is a recurrent theme in the volume and he is illuminatingly compared to other Oxford ‘outsiders’ like Gilbert Murray and Eduard Fraenkel. It would have been interesting, however, to juxtapose the Classics of Oxford in Dodds’ time with that of Cambridge and to also draw comparisons with Cantabrigian classicists.
The Greeks and the Irrational is Dodds’ most famous work. In a must-read chapter for anyone interested in developments in the study of Greek religion and culture in the first half of the twentieth century, Renaud Gagné examines major approaches and debates of the time, tracing the growing interest in the irrational elements of antiquity from the end of the First World War to the appearance of Dodds’ book. The book itself is the focus of Robert Parker’s chapter, which provides a penetrating critical analysis of The Greeks and the Irrational, investigating its relation to earlier and contemporary classical scholarship and other disciplines, discussing its enduring strengths as well as the (many) points of criticism, and considering its impact. Placed between the two is Nick Lowe’s chapter on Dodds and the paranormal, highlighting the connection between Dodds’ interest in ancient and modern irrationality.
In the chapters following, Scott Scullion examines Dodds’ studies of Greek tragedy, including but not limited to his Bacchae commentary (Oxford 1944), Richard Rutherford his edition of Plato’s Gorgias (Oxford 1959) and Teresa Morgan his Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (Cambridge 1965). Anne Sheppard investigates Dodds’ multilevel influence on Neoplatonic studies while John Dillon discusses Dodds’ interest in Neoplatonism through his relationship with the Irish translator of Plotinus, Stephen MacKenna. In his chapter, Scullion states that ‘because [Dodds’] work remains so influential, we still need to approach it in an alert and critical rather than commemorative or hagiographical spirit’ (129). It is one of the great merits of the volume that it consistently engages with Dodds’ scholarship in this manner. Thus, while the contributors elucidate the originality and value of Dodds’ methodology and ideas, calling attention to how he brought insights from anthropology and psychology to bear on the study of antiquity or how he combined sources that had not previously been examined together, they also point to those parts of his work that had already been validly criticized in his day or have appeared problematic since.
As mentioned, a prominent theme of the volume is concerned with interconnections. Tom Walker’s chapter looks at the relation between Dodds’ poetry and scholarship and the poetry of Yeats and MacNeice, investigating common themes and influences in both directions. The relationships between Dodds, Yeats and MacNeice are explored further by Peter McDonald, this time with a focus on the latter’s translation of the Agamemnon (London 1936). Regrettably, there is no chapter-length discussion of Dodds’ relationships with Auden and Eliot matching the highly interesting chapters on Dodds, Yeats and MacNeice.
In the final and most personal chapter, students and friends of Dodds share their recollections and thoughts on him as a scholar, teacher and engaged citizen.
The volume succeeds in providing an incisive, balanced assessment of Dodds’ scholarship and its legacy while, at the same time, taking a broader, unifying view of his life that casts light on the interrelations between his approach to Classics and his other interests. It will be fortunate if the life and work of other past scholars are so examined.
