Moses Hadas (June 25, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia – August 17, 1966) was an American teacher, a classical scholar, and a translator of numerous works from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German.

Life

Raised in Atlanta in a

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

nical training."The Many Lives of Moses Hadas by Rachel Hadas"
/ref> He graduated from

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studie ...

(1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German,

ancient Hebrew Ancient Hebrew (ISO 639-3 code ) is a blanket term for pre-modern varieties of the Hebrew language: * Paleo-Hebrew (such as the Siloam inscription), a variant of the Phoenician alphabet * Biblical Hebrew (including the use of Tiberian vocalization ...

, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages. His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

. There he bucked the prevailing classical methods of the day— textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right. He embraced television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and

tape Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive *Athletic tape, pressure-sensitiv ...

. His daughter Rachel Hadas is a poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. With his first wife, he had a son David Hadas (1931-2004), a professor of English and Religious Studies at Washington University; and Jane Streusand. Hadas is credited with two celebrated witticisms: - "This book fills a much-needed gap." - "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it."

Selected works

*''Sextus Pompey''. 1930 *''Book of delight'', by Joseph ben Meir Zabara; translated by Moses Hadas; with an introduction by Merriam Sherwood. 1932 *''History of Greek literature''. 1950 *''History of Latin literature''. 1952. *''Greek poets''. 1953 *''Ancilla to classical reading''. 1954 *''

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...

''. translated with an introd. by Moses Hadas. 1955 *''History of Rome, from its origins to 529 A.D., as told by the Roman historians''. 1956 *'' Thyestes''. Translated, with an introduction by Moses Hadas. 1957 *''Stoic philosophy of Seneca; essays and letters of Seneca.''. 1958 *''Hellenistic culture: fusion and diffusion''. 1959 *''Humanism: the Greek ideal and its survival''. 1960 *''Essential works of Stoicism''. 1961 *''Old wine, new bottles; a humanist teacher at work''. 1962 *''Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Modern abridgment, 1962 *''Hellenistic literature''. 1963 *''Style the repository''. 1965 *''Heroes and gods; spiritual biographies in antiquity'', by Moses Hadas and Morton Smith. 1965 *''Introduction to classical drama''. Foreword by Alvin C. Eurich. 1966 *''Living tradition''. 1967 *'' Solomon Maimon'', an autobiography / edited and with a preface by Moses Hadas. 1975

Discography

During the fifties, Hadas recorded several albums of Latin and Greek works on

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

.Hadas Discography
at Smithsonian Folkways * ''The Story of Virgil's Aeneid: Introduction and Readings in Latin (and English) by Professor Moses Hadas'' (1955) * ''The Latin Language: Introduction and Reading in Latin (and English) by Professor Moses Hadas of Columbia University'' (1955) * ''Plato on the Death of Socrates: Introduction with Readings from the Apology and the Phaedo in Greek & in English trans.'' (1956) * ''Caesar: Readings in Latin and English by Professor Moses Hadas'' (1956) * ''Cicero: Commentary and Readings in Latin and English by Moses Hadas'' (1956) * ''Longus - Daphnis and Chloe: Read by Moses Hadas from His Translation'' (1958)

References

External links

*https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8754-hadas-moses
"The Many Lives of Moses Hadas"
by Rachel Hadas, ''Columbia University Alumni Magazine'', Fall 2001

- Columbia University
Finding aid to Moses Hadas papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hadas, Moses American classical scholars 1900 births 1966 deaths Classical scholars of Columbia University American literary critics Greek–English translators Yiddish-speaking people Jewish Theological Seminary of America alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers Jewish American writers American Orthodox Jews Jewish scholars Scholars of ancient Greek literature Scholars of Latin literature 20th-century translators People from Atlanta Place of death missing 20th-century American Jews