The Jane K. Sather Professorship of Classical Literature is an endowed chair for the study of classics at the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1914 after a donation by Jane K. Sather, widow of the Norwegian-American banker Peder Sather, the professorship requires its holder to spend one term at the university. Sather Professors would teach a full programme of classes. Since 1919, the post entails a set of lectures on a unified topic which is later published as a book by the University of California Press. According to classicist Oliver Taplin, the chair is "the most prestigious [professorship] in the subject in the world".

Foundation In 1886, the Norwegian-American banker Peder Sather died, leaving a substantial fortune to his second wife Jane K. Sather. In 1900, after managing the bequest herself for some time, she decided to make an initial donation of $75,000 and other assets to the University of California at Berkeley. At this time, Sather stipulated that her donation be used to establish a professorship of the Classics and a fund for the study of law. Shortly before her death in 1911, she arranged for the funds to be consolidated; they were now to pay for what would become the Sather Tower and the establishment of two professorships: one in Classics and one in historiography. The Regents of the University of California complied with Sather's wishes and divided her donation accordingly. $100,000 were allocated for each of the professorships. Although her husband had accumulated the initial donation, both the tower and the professorships were named after her. In 1914, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, the university's president, appointed the British archaeologist John Myres to be the first holder of the chair.

Professorship

Initially, holder of the professorship would spend one term at Berkeley, teaching a full programme of classes. In 1919, classicists Ivan Mortimer Linforth and George Calhoun modified the nature of the appointment: henceforth, holders would give a specified number of lectures (initially eight, later six) on a unified topic. The lectures should then be published as a book by the University of California Press. Until 1952, Sather Professors were given access to an office in the university's Wheeler Hall which included its own lavatory. The office has since been replaced by rooms in Dwinelle Hall furnished with a dedicated library and portraits of past holders of the chair.

The Sather Professorship has been held by numerous distinguished scholars including Cyril Bailey, E. R. Dodds, Denys Page, Geoffrey Kirk, Ronald Syme, Edward Rand, and Bernard Knox. Appointments in the 21st century have included Latinists Philip Hardie, Alessandro Barchiesi, and Denis Feeney, Hellenists Helene P. Foley, and Gregory Nagy, and historians Mary Beard and Nicholas Purcell. According to classicist Oliver Taplin, the chair is "the most prestigious [professorship] in the subject in the world".

List of Sather Professors

Beginning in 1919, the duties of the Sather Professorship included a series of six lectures preparatory to book-length publication. From 1967 to 2001, lecture series titles were not publicized; in these cases, the subsequent book title is given. Lecture series that did not or have not yet resulted in a book publication are indicated with a §.

YearProfessorLecture Topic1913–14 John Myres (I) 1914–15 Henry W. Prescott "The Classical Epic"1915–16 no professor appointed due to World War I1916–17 Paul Shorey (I) "The Broader Aspects of Platonism in European Literature"1916–17 Gordon Jennings Laing "Ancient Etruria"1917–18 Francis Greenleaf Allinson "The Greeks in Literature and Life"1917-18 William Kelly Prentice no formal series1918–19 Paul Shorey (II) no formal series1919–20 Edward Kennard Rand "The History of Classical Culture during the Middle Ages"; "The History of Pastoral Literature"1920–21 John Adams Scott "The Unity of Homer"1921–22 § George L. Hendrickson "Roman Satire"1922–23 Herbert Weir Smyth "Aeschylean Tragedy"1923–24 Terrot R. Glover "Herodotus"1924–25 Duane R. Stuart "Epochs of Greek and Roman Biography"1925–26 John Burnet "Platonism"1926–27 John Myres (II) "Who Were the Greeks?"1927–28 Arthur L. Wheeler "Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry"1928–29 Paul Shorey (III) "Platonism Ancient and Modern"1929–30 Tenney Frank "Life and Literature of the Roman Republic"1930–31 Martin P. Nilsson "The Mycenean Origins of Greek Mythology"1931–32 Cyril Bailey "Phases in the Religion of Ancient Rome"1932–33 Robert J. Bonner "Aspects of Athenian Democracy"1933–34 § William Abbott Oldfather "The Decline of Culture within the Roman Empire"1934–35 Werner Jaeger "Demosthenes: the Origin and Growth of his Policy"1935–36 J. Wight Duff "Roman Satire: Its Outlook on Social Life"1936–37 Samuel Eliot Bassett "The Poetry of Homer"1937–38 § Benjamin Oliver Foster no regular series due to Foster's death1938–39 § Henri Grégoire "Constantine the Great and the Triumph of Christianity"1939–40 H.J. Rose "The Eclogues of Virgil"1940–41 Axel W. Persson "The Religion of Greece in Prehistoric Times"1941–42 § John Beazley (I) no regular series due to World War II1942–43 Hermann Fränkel "Ovid: a Poet between Two Worlds"1943–44 Gilbert Norwood "Pindar"1944–45 Rhys Carpenter "Folk Tale, Fiction, and Saga in the Homeric Epic"1945–46 Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner "The Greater Roman Historians"1946–47 Lily Ross Taylor "Party Politics in the Age of Caesar"1947–48 Levi Arnold Post "From Homer to Menander: Forces in Greek Poetic Fiction"1948–49 Sir John Beazley (II) "The Development of Attic Black-Figure"1949–50 E.R. Dodds "The Greeks and the Irrational"1950–51 Ben Edwin Perry "The Greek Romances"1951–52 Arnold Wycombe Gomme "The Greek Attitude to Poetry and History"1952–53 André-Jean Fegustière "Personal Religion among the Greeks"1953–54 Jakob Larsen "Representative Government in Greek and Roman History"1954–55 Joshua Whatmough "Poetic, Scientific, and Other Forms of Discourse"1955–56 Sir Frank Adcock "The Greek and Macedonian Art of War"1956–57 § Georges Daux "An International Organization in Antiquity: The Delphic Amphictiony"1957–58 Denys Page "History and the Homeric Iliad"1958–59 Benjamin Dean Meritt "The Athenian Year"1959–60 Sir Ronald Syme "Sallust"1960–61 H.D.F. Kitto "Poiesis, or Literary Structure"1961–62 Arnaldo Momigliano "The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography"1962–63 Bernard Knox "The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy"1963–64 Bruno Snell "Scenes from Greek Drama"1963–64 Sterling Dow "Knossos and Mycenae: the Great Powers in the Bronze Age"1964–65 § Viktor Pöschl "Man and Politics in Tacitus"1965–66 William Bedell Stanford "The Sound of Greek Poetry"1966–67 Kenneth Dover "Lysias and the Corpus Lysiacum"1967–68 E. J. Kenney The Classical Text1968–69 Geoffrey Kirk Myth: Meaning and Functions1969–70 Hugh Lloyd-Jones The Justice of Zeus1970–71 F. W. Walbank Polybius1971–72 Moses Finley The Ancient Economy1972–73 Gordon Willis Williams Change and Decline. Roman Literature in the Early Empire1973–74 Albrecht Dihle The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity1974–75 Emily Vermeule Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry1975–76 § Ernst Badian 1976–77 Walter Burkert Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual1977–78 C. J. Herington Poetry into Drama. Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition1978–79 § James Frank Gilliam 1979–80 § G. E. L. Owen 1980–81 Emilio Gabba Dionysius and the History of Archaic Rome1981–82 Wendell Clausen Virgil's Aeneid and the Tradition of Hellenistic Poetry1982–83 Christian Habicht Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece1983–84 G. E. R. Lloyd The Revolutions of Wisdom : Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science1984–85 Anthony Snodgrass An Archaeology of Greece1985–86 Averil Cameron Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire : The Development of Christian Discourse1986–87 § T. C. Gelzer 1988–89 Bernard Williams Shame and Necessity1989–90 § Albert Henrichs 1990–91 Paul Zanker The Mask of Socrates. The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity1991–92 Glen Bowersock Fiction as History : Nero to Julian1992–93 Alexander Nehamas The Art of Living : Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault1993–94 Anne Pippin Burnett Revenge in Attic and Late Tragedy1994–95 Gian Biagio Conte Julian1995–96 § Froma Zeitlin 1996–97 Brunilde Ridgway Prayers in Stone : Greek Architectural Sculpture ca. 600-100 B.C.E.1997–98 Michael Frede A Free Will. Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought1998–99 Henk Versnel "Coping with the Gods; Wayward Readings in Greek Theology"1999–2000 § Anna Morpurgo Davies "Names and Naming in Ancient Greece: Language, Culture and Continuity"2000–01 Brian Stock Augustine's Inner Dialogue. The Philosophical Soliloquy in Late Antiquity2001–02 Gregory Nagy "Homer the Classic"2002–03 Fergus Millar "A Greek Roman Empire: Power, Belief and Reason under Theodosius II (A.D. 408-450)"2003–04 Denis Feeney "Charts of Roman Time: The Uses of Time in the Formation of Roman Culture"2004–05 David Sedley "Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity"2005–06 Roger S. Bagnall "Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East"2006–07 Tonio Hölscher "Visual Power in Ancient Greece and Rome"2007–08 Helene P. Foley "Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the U.S. Stage"2008–09 Mary Beard "Roman Laughter"2009–10 § Heinrich von Staden "The Scientific Lives of Animals: Ancient Greece and Rome"2010–11 § Alessandro Barchiesi "The War for Italia: Conflict and Collective Memory in Vergil's Aeneid"2011–12 § Nicholas Purcell "Venal Histories: The Character, Limits, and Historical Importance of Buying and Selling in the Ancient World"2012–13 Robert Parker "Greek Gods Abroad"2013–14 § François Lissarrague "Panta Kala: Heroic Warriors and the Aesthetics of Weaponry in Greek Art"2014–15 § Richard P. Martin "Comic Community: Laughter and Loathing in Athens"2015–16 Philip Hardie "Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry"2016–17 § M. M. McCabe "Seeing and Saying: Plato on Virtue and Knowledge"2017–18 § Maurizio Bettini "City of the Spoken Word: Orality and the Foundations of Roman Culture"2018–19 Jack L. Davis "A Bronze Age Greek State in Formation"2019–20 Josiah Ober "The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason"2020–21 Four Lectures, Four Sather Professors – A Special Remote Series2021–22 Emily Gowers "The Small Stuff of Roman Antiquity"2022–23 § Greg Woolf "The Rhythms of Rome: Seasonality and society in the early empire"2023–24 Victoria Wohl "The Poetry of Being and the Prose of the World in Early Greek Philosophy"2024–25 A Reprise of Sather “Greatest Hits”2025–26 § Emily Greenwood "Conversing on the Outside: Ancient Greek Dialogues and Black Feminist Thought"

Notes

A: Benjamin Oliver Foster died before assuming his professorship. In his stead, Oscar Broneer and Theodore Wade-Gery delivered three lectures each. B: The outbreak of World War II prevented John Beazley from assuming his professorship. In his stead, Carl Blegen and Harold F. Cherniss delivered three lectures each. Beazley was reappointed in 1948. C: Four returning Sather professors—François Lissarrague, Mary Beard, Maurizio Bettini, and Mary Margaret McCabe—gave one lecture each. D: Four returning Sather professors—Victoria Wohl, Josiah Ober, Greg Woolf, and Emily Gowers—gave one lecture each.

Impact