Life
1853-1926; classical scholar; b. Ballydermot, Co. Offaly; ed. Portarlington,
TCD, and Cambridge; Prof. of Greek QUC; Disney Prof. of Arch., Cambridge,
1892. Origins of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards (1892);
Origin and Influence of Thoroughbred Horse (1905); Origin of
Tragedy (1910); The Oldest Irish Epic (1907). Knighted 1917;
d. Cambridge. DIB
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Notes
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP
1976; this ed. 1984), Sir William Ridgeway, ed. TCD, Fellow of Caius College
Cambridge, professor of Greek in Cork, 1883-92; Disney Professor of Archaeology
in Cambridge, 1892; The Origins of Metallic Currency and Weight-Standards
(1892) and Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse (1905).
In The Early Age of Greece (1901), Ridgeway introduced the controversial
theory that Homeric Achaeans were Celts who invaded Greece about two generations
before the Trojan War and learned Greek from the Aegean peoples, and that
the civilisation described by Homer belonged to the Early Iron Age. Discouraged
by criticism, especially bearing on his insubstantial definition of Celts
for purposes of the theory, he did not publish the second volume, which
finally appeared in the form of separate essays edited by AJB Wace in
1926.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)