Georg Hans Bhawani Luck (February 17, 1926 – February 17, 2013)Obituary for Georg Hans Luck, Ph.D.
Peaceful Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Center, retrieved 2013-02-24. was a Swiss

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

known for his studies of magical beliefs and practices in the Classical world.. For over twenty years he was a professor at the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. In a scholarly debate in the late 1980s concerning methodology in the classics, Luck was a leader on the side of traditional rigorous scholarly methods and against what he viewed as unfounded speculation based on

multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...

Education and academic career

Luck was born in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland, and attended the Kirchenfeld Gymnasium (high school) in Bern. During and after World War II, he served in the Swiss Army, eventually being promoted to lieutenant. After this, he earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

, also with studies at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. He came to the U.S. for graduate studies, at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he earned a master's degree in classics in 1951. Returning to the University of Bern, he earned a doctorate in 1953. He was awarded a Guggenheim in 1958. He taught classics at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1952 and at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1953 and 1954. Next, he taught at Harvard from 1955 to 1958, and the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

from 1958 to 1962. He became a full professor at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, and then moved to Johns Hopkins in 1970, where he remained for the rest of his career. For twelve years, he was the editor in chief of the ''

American Journal of Philology The ''American Journal of Philology'' is a quarterly academic journal established in 1880 by the classical scholar Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. It covers the field of philology, and related areas ...

''. He retired in 1990.

Selected publications

*''Der Akademiker Antiochos'' (Haupt, 1953). This monograph, Luck's Ph.D. thesis, collects the fragments of text attributed by name to

Antiochus of Ascalon Antiochus of Ascalon (; ; ) was a 1st-century BC Platonist philosopher. He rejected skepticism, blended Stoic doctrines with Platonism, and was the first philosopher in the tradition of Middle Platonism. Antiochus moved to Athens early in his li ...

, and discusses other texts that are likely to have been influenced by Antiochus. *''The Latin love elegy'' (Methuen, 1959).Georg Luck
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, retrieved 2013-02-24. A discussion and translation of the

elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

of the

Latin poets Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins. Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a few r ...

Propertius Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium (now Assisi) and died shortly after 15 BC. Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of '' Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the ...

, and

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

. A fifth poet of this style,

Cornelius Gallus Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator, politician and military commander, at one time appointed by the Emperor Augustus as prefect of Egypt. Only nine lines of his poetry are extant today, but he was much read in antiq ...

, is comparatively neglected, little of his poetry having survived. *''Arcana mundi : magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds : a collection of ancient texts'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985). Luck collects examples of magical thought in the ancient world, from Homer to the fall of Rome, and ranging in content from poetry and papyri to philosophy. This work includes major sections on magic, miracles, demonology, divination, alchemy, and astrology. Originally written in English, it has also been translated into German, Italian, and Spanish. *''Albi Tibulli Aliorumque Carmina'' (Teubner, 1988). A collection of the works of

, and a survey of the manuscripts from which these works were collected. *''Die Weisheit der Hunde. Texte der antiken Kyniker in deutscher Übersetzung mit Erläuterungen'' (Alfred Kröner, 1997). The history of the Cynics, from the collected ancient texts concerning them, which Luck has translated into German. *''Ancient pathways and hidden pursuits : religion, morals, and magic in the ancient world'' (University of Michigan Press, 1999). A collection of 22 of Luck's essays, on diverse topics, written over a 50-year time span.Review of ''Ancient pathways and hidden pursuits''
by Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, ''

Bryn Mawr Classical Review ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' (''BMCR''), founded in 1990, is an open access journal that as of 2008 published reviews of scholarly work in the field of classical studies including classical archaeology. The journal describes itself as the sec ...

'' 2001.01.01, retrieved 2013-02-24.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luck, Georg H. B. American classical scholars Swiss classical scholars Historians of antiquity 1926 births 2013 deaths University of Bern alumni Harvard University alumni Classical scholars of Yale University Classical scholars of Brown University Classical scholars of Harvard University Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Academic staff of the University of Bonn Classical scholars of Johns Hopkins University Scholars of Latin literature People from Bern