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 (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, of

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

with a M.A. in Mediterranean Studies and of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, 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 through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

epic poetry In poetry, 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. With regard t ...

, particularly

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient 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. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and Vergil, 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 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 studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

in general, and extensively studied the political thought and approach to

Scholarly method The scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims about their subjects of expertise as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly pub ...

advocated by

Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

, 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 Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

. In the 1990s, Adler developed an interest in Russian thought and literature. She not only taught herself

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

, 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,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, 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