Eve Adler (29 April 1945 – 4 September 2004) was an American classicist who taught at Middlebury College for 25 years until her death in 2004. Adler was a graduate of Queens College with a B.A. in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, of

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

with a M.A. in Mediterranean Studies and of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, where she got her doctorate in Classics. She was widely regarded as one of the most gifted teachers in Middlebury's history.

Life and career

Adler primarily specialized in

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

, particularly

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

and

Vergil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, as well as classical understanding of liberal education. Prior to her death, she published her monumental and authoritative work called "Vergil's Empire: Political Thought in the Aeneid" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). In this book, Adler rejects centuries of scholarship on Vergil, which believes that he was merely a clever imitator of Homer, and argues that he had a unique view of the human condition and ambitions as great, if not greater, than his Greek predecessor. As the

Weekly Standard ''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "red ...

wrote in its review of the book, Adler believes "something of a secret teaching may be glimpsed behind the imperial screen ... ecret teaching ofviews on universal empire hat haveurgency not only for literary studies but for our reflections on empire in the current global situation." In addition to her book on Vergil, Adler had written an earlier work on Catullan self-Revelation and numerous scholarly articles on other classical authors. Adler was also an important scholar of

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

in general, and extensively studied the political thought and approach to Scholarly method advocated by Leo Strauss, and was widely regarded as one of the leading Straussians even though she had never studied with him. She was the translator from German of Strauss's "Philosophy and Law: Contributions to the Understanding of Maimonides and His Predecessors" (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995). Her introduction to that work is one of the most authoritative interpretation of Strauss's work on

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...

. In the 1990s, Adler developed an interest in Russian thought and literature. She not only taught herself Russian language, but also co-authored, with Vladimir Shlyakhov, "A Dictionary of Russian Slang and Colloquial Expressions" (Barrons, 1995). She also translated Mikhail Epstein's "Cries in the New Wilderness" from Russian. She spent the last years of her life preparing a Russian translation of Strauss' ''Natural Right and History''. This translation was published after her death in Russia (Moscow: Vodoley Publishers, 2007, se
lstrauss.ru
. Adler taught

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and

at Middlebury College, and also knew German, Russian, Arabic, and Italian.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Eve Middlebury College faculty Brandeis University alumni Cornell University alumni 1945 births 2004 deaths Place of birth missing