Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński (; russian: Фадде́й Фра́нцевич Зели́нский; addei FrantsevichSeptember 14, 1859 – May 8, 1944) was a prominent

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

classical philologist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

, historian, and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

and other classical authors into

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. His most well-known works are ''Die Gliederung der altattischen Komoedie'', ''Tragodumenon libri tres'', and ''Iresione'', the last of which is a collection of essays.

Life and career

He was born on 14 September 1859 in Skrzypczyńce,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(present-day Ukraine) to father Franciszek and mother Ludwika (''née'' Grudzińska), both of them of Polish descent. Between 1869 and 1876 he attended secondary school in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and subsequently in the years 1876–1881 he studied in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1880 he earned his doctorate from the University of Leipzig for his dissertation, ''Die Gliederung der altattischen Komoedie.'' He was author of works on the history of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

culture and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

classical education Classical education may refer to: *''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements: **An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin **Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...

, and popularization of classical studies (published largely in Russian and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

). In 1884 he became a professor at the University of St. Petersburg, and following Polish independence he held the chair of Classical Studies at

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

for 17 years (1922–1939) during the interwar period. He was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Jagiellonian University,

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

(1930), and twelve western European universities. Between 1933 and 1939 Zieliński was a member of the prestigious

Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...

. His daughter became the wife of Prof. Vladimir Beneshevich, executed by the Soviet regime in 1938.

Adrian Piotrovsky Adrian Ivanovich Piotrovsky (russian: Адриа́н Ива́нович Пиотро́вский) ( – 21 November 1937) was a Russian Soviet dramaturge, responsible for creating the synopsis for Sergei Prokofiev's ballet '' Romeo and Juliet''. He ...

, his natural son, was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

in November 1937 and executed. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Zieliński left Poland to live with his son in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, where he lived until he died in 1944 after completing ''Religions of the Ancient World,'' which he considered to be his ''magnum opus.''

Scholarly work

Although Zieliński was active in many areas of classical scholarship, one of the studies for which he is best known in the West is his investigation of the prose rhythm of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, published in 1904, which is still often referred to today. (See

Clausula (rhetoric) In Roman rhetoric, a ''clausula'' (; Latin for "little close or conclusion"; plural ''clausulae'' ) was a rhythmic figure used to add finesse and finality to the end of a sentence or phrase. There was a large range of popular clausulae. Most we ...

). He was also an early mentor to

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( ; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic and scholar who worked on literary theor ...

. Zieliński's concept of ''pliaska'', in which logocentricism is challenged by incorporating gesture and dance into speech, is referenced in Bakhtin's communication theories that emphasize group participation in the interpretation of meaning between self and other. His work ''Tragodumena: De trimetri Euripidei evolutione'' is a primary reference work for chronology, style, and resolution within Euripides' individual plays as well as across Euripides' body of work, and employs an early narratological methodology.Kucharski (2011). 100.

Works

* ''Cicero im Wandel der Jahrhunderte.'' (Leipzig 1897, 2nd ed. 1908) * ''Das Clauselgesetz in Ciceros Reden. Grundzüge einer oratorischen Rhythmik'' (1904) * ''Der Constructive Rhythmus in Ciceros Reden. Der oratorischen Rhythmik zweiter Teil'' (1913) * ''Rzym i jego religia'' (1920, Polish) * ''Chrześcijaństwo starożytne a filozofia rzymska'' (1921, Polish) * ''Grecja. Budownictwo, plastyka, krajobraz'' (1923, Polish) * ''Literatura starożytnej Grecji epoki niepodległości'' (1923, Polish) * ''Rozwój moralności w świecie starożytnym od Homera do czasów Chrystusa'' (1927, Polish) * ''Filheleńskie poematy Byrona'' (1928, Polish) * ''Kleopatra'' (1929, Polish) * * * OCLC-number for the translated edition:

Life and career

Scholarly work

Works

References

Further reading