Bernadotte Perrin
Yale professor of Greek, Loeb translator of Plutarch's Lives
- Born
- 1847
- Died
- 1920
- Known for
- Loeb Classical Library translation of Plutarch's Lives (1914–1926)
- Position
- Lampson Professor of Greek Literature and History, Yale
Yale classicist whose Loeb translation of Plutarch's Lives includes the strange omen at Lucullus' battle with Mithridates.
What is Bernadotte Perrin known for?
Bernadotte Perrin was an American classical scholar and Lampson Professor of Greek Literature and History at Yale University. He spent much of his career on Plutarch, the Greek biographer of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, editing individual Lives for students before translating the full set.
His translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives for the Loeb Classical Library appeared in eleven volumes beginning in 1914. The Loeb editions print the Greek and English on facing pages, and Perrin's version remains a standard reference.
In the Life of Lucullus, chapter 8, Plutarch reports that before a battle with Mithridates in 73 BCE the sky split open and a large flame-like body shaped like a wine jar and coloured like molten silver fell between the armies. Plutarch presents it as an omen; modern readers often suggest a meteor.
The site quotes Perrin's 1914 translation of Plutarch's Lucullus for the 'silver jar' that fell between two armies.
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Bernadotte Perrin'Reference
- Perseus Digital Library, Plutarch, 'Lucullus' 8.6, ed. Bernadotte PerrinPrimary text
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.