Bible Encyclopedias
George Gilbert Aims Murray

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
George Gascoigne

Next Entry
George Gilbert Ramsay

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

"GEORGE GILBERT AIMS MURRAY (1866-), British classical scholar, was born at Sydney, N.S.W., Jan. 2 1866, but left Australia at the age of eleven. Educated at Merchant Taylors' school, London, and St. John's College, Oxford, he at once established his reputation as the most brilliant classical scholar of his day, winning both the Hertford and Ireland scholarships (1885), the Craven scholarship (1886), the prize for Latin verse (1886), and the Gaisford prizes for Greek verse and prose (1886-7), as well as taking first-classes in Moderations (1886) and in Literae Humaniores (1888). He was elected to a fellowship at New College, Oxford, in 1888, and next year to the professorship of Greek at Glasgow University, a position he held till 1899. In 1907 he was appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford. In 1889 he had married Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle, and his sympathies were always strongly shown on the advanced Radical side in politics. He was parliamentary candidate for Oxford University at the general election of 1918 and at a by-election in 1919, but was unsuccessful. During the World War he prominently espoused the cause of the conscientious objectors, and later identified himself with efforts to ameliorate economic conditions in the enemy countries. He published a History of Ancient Greek Literature in 1897, but is more widely celebrated for his incomparable renderings of the plays of Euripides into English verse. Several of his versions were acted in England and America. He also published The Rise of the Greek Epic (1907; 2nd ed., 1911) and Four Stages of Greek Religion (1913). Amongst his works on other subjects are Liberalism and the Empire (part author, 1900); The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey (1915); Faith, War and Policy (1918); Religio Grammatici (1918); and two early plays, Carlyon Sahib (1899) and Andromache (1900).