Gilbert Murray

The Australian-born British scholar Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) first made a name for himself as an innovative scholar of Greek literature. He taught at Oxford and Glasgow Universities and translated ancient Greek texts. He applied his own unique approach to translating the works of the ancient Greek masters - including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes - and in the process generatednew interest for Greek drama on the contemporary London stage. Murray was also a staunch advocate for world peace, and he gained international renown for his efforts in establishing the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Early Life and Career

The future renowned British scholar and political activist Gilbert Murray was born George Gilbert Aimé Murray on January 2, 1866, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. When he was 11 years old, he moved with his family to Britain. He attended Oxford University and graduated at the top of his class in 1887.

In 1888, he became a fellow at Oxford. From 1889 to 1899, he was a professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow. Only 23 years old when he started at Glasgow, he was one of the youngest professors ever at the esteemed institution. As a professor, he was noted for his enthusiasm and insight into Greek tragedy. His lectures consisted in large part of his own translations of Greek plays. These translations would later be published and presented in the London theatre. During the period between 1904 and 1912, he directed many stage productions of Greek plays. In doing so, he helped revive the Greek theatre as a vital performance art. When translating the plays, he employed rhymed verse rather than blank verse, trying to restore the rhythmic quality that was such an important element of the ancient Greek literature. In 1908, he became Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University. He held that position until his retirement in 1936.

Innovative Scholarship

Murray is considered one of the most important scholars of Greek history and culture. As a scholar and educator, he was noted for incorporating anthropology, then an emerging science, into his studies of Greek texts. As a result of this novel approach, he increased the academic world's understanding of the writings of Homer as well as the ancient Greek religions. A recurrent theme in his scholarly works involved the continuing importance of ancient theology and religions to modern thought. He illustrated this by recounting the many theological trends of ancient Greece.

This approach guided his writing in such scholarly works as The Rise of the Greek Epic, which was published in 1907, and Five Stages of Greek Religion, published in 1925. In the latter work, Murray described the earliest and most primitive rites as well as the classic Greek religion that included the Olympian gods and the later religion of the philosophic schools of the fourth century B.C. By outlining Greek theology in this fashion, he postulated that Christianity resulted from a cultural clash between Greek and Eastern religions. His other well-known works include History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897), The Classical Tradition in Poetry (1927), and Hellenism and the Modern World (1953). His Euripides and His Age (1918) is considered on of the best books written about its subject. Essentially, he ripped the name down from the pantheon of great Greek authors, brought the subject down to earth, and made Euripides a compelling flesh-and-blood figure, placing the writer squarely in the context of his times while emphasizing his continued relevance. "As a playwright the fate of Euripides has been strange," wrote Murray in Euripides. "All through a long life he was almost invariably beaten in the State competitions. He was steadily admired by some few philosophers, like Socrates; he enjoyed immense fame throughout Greece; but the official judges of poetry were against him, and his own people of Athens admired him reluctantly and with a grudge. After death, indeed, he seemed to come into his kingdom. He held the stage as no other tragedian has ever held it, and we hear of his plays being performed with popular success six hundred years after they were written, and in countries far removed from Greece."

Commenting about Greek scholarship and the value of the ancient texts, Murray once said, as quoted in Libertystory.net, "Between us and [ancient Greek authors], there has passed age upon age of men … who sought in the books that they read other things than truth and imaginative beauty, or who did not care to read books at all. Of the literature produced by the Greeks in the fifth century B.C., we possess about a twentieth part; of that produced in the seventh, sixth, fourth and third, not nearly so large a proportion. All that has reached us has passed a severe test and far from discriminating ordeal. It has secured its life by never going out of fashion for long at a time."

In another scholarly book, with subject matter more anthropological than classical, Stoic, Christian, and Humanist, published in 1940, Murray took a look at the world's earliest rites and religions and considered their relevance to later religions.

Became Interested in International Affairs

Murray not only made a name for himself as an important Greek scholar, he also became an important international figure as a peace advocate who was instrumental in the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Murrary's concerns grew to include world affairs. His interest began in earnest in 1914, as Europe became the center stage of World War I. Murray was stirred by Sir Edward Grey's speech before the House of Parliament on August 3, 1914, that called for Great Britain's entrance into the great conflict. Even though it meant his country was going to war, Murray recognized the "rightness" of the decision. From that point on, Murray became active in the cause of world peace. He later supported the Covenant of the League of Nations, drafted by United States President Woodrow Wilson and submitted on February 14, 1919. The document advocated the need for an international organization that could preserve peace and settle disputes by arbitration as opposed to war. The League of Nations Union itself was formed after World War I, and Murray was one of the founding members. He was appointed as a South African delegate from 1921 to 1923. From 1923 to 1938, he was chairman of the League. During World War II, he served as joint president. During this period, he published several books about international politics, including Liberality and Civilization: Lectures Given at the Invitation of the Hibbert Trustees in the Universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Birmingham (1938).

In 1924, while in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the League of Nations Union, Murray took part in a discussion about effective contributions to world peace. He suggested the development of an international students' group that would provide the intellectual, artistic, and social exchange of ideas among individuals of various national backgrounds. His suggestion led to the creation of the Committee of Intellectual Cooperation. Not only was he instrumental in its development, Murray served as chairman for eight years.

In 1934, Murray was one of the organizers of the famous League of Nations "Peace Ballot" of 1934-1935. More than 11 million British voters supported the ballot as well as Britain's membership in the League. Murray himself considered the ballot to be the League's greatest achievement. However, the League's efforts did little to affect the rising tide of Fascist aggression that came out of Germany and Italy during the 1930s. Murray blamed the failures on the United States' lack of participation up to that point. However, the eventual outbreak of World War II only caused Murray to be a more staunch advocate in his efforts toward world peace.

Engaged in Famine Relief

In 1942, Murray became one of the founding members of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, or Oxfam, as well as one of its trustees. The formation of the committee resulted from a situation in Europe directly attributable to the German invasions. In April 1941, when Greece surrendered to Germany, food and supplies belonging to the citizens were given to the German soldiers, which made a bad situation even worse. Before the invasion, the Greek people already suffered shortages due to Allied blockades intended to deplete the German army. A famine ensued and, at its peak, more than 1,500 people died a day. The situation was almost as bad in other occupied countries, including Norway, Belgium, and Poland. Not helping matters was the British government's stance on relief for the starving countries. It firmly believed that it was the duty of the occupying enemy to feed the citizens. Britain was reluctant to send relief, because it feared that any supplies offered would be given instead to German soldiers, and that could prolong the war. However, awareness of the situation - as well as their government's stance - grew among the British civilians. A movement was formed to appeal to the government to change its stance. Oxfam was part of this movement. Murray felt that in light of the deaths in Greece, the blockade was unjustifiable.

The committee first proposed a "controlled relief" program that included providing dried milk and vitamins for Greek and Belgian children. The response of the British War Cabinet was pretty much the same as before. The supplies, they believed, would inevitably be taken by the Germans and diverted to its workers in munitions factories and thus help the German war effort. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was even bold enough to suggest that hunger might help provoke citizens of occupied countries to rise against their oppressors.

Oxfam officially came into existence on May 29, 1942. George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, a man known for his humanitarian positions, and Murray were among the members. Murray, because of his knowledge of Greece as well as the immediate Greek situation, was deemed a valuable advisor to the committee. The committee included academics and public figures. The committee's goals were to gather information about famine conditions in occupied countries and provide food relief where most needed. To support the committee, a Famine Relief Fund was established that help fund relief that the government deemed permissible. Oxfam was comprised of more than 200 local committees. However, its effect was relatively modest. The British government stuck fast to its policy on the blockade and would only allow relief to Greece. After the war, Oxfam continued its efforts on behalf of the lingering needs of European countries.

Even before Oxfam was formed, Murray had attempted to help stem the growing famine. In October of 1941, the League of Nations Union created the Committee on Starvation in Occupied Countries, and Murray and Lord Robert Cecil were appointed as joint presidents. The two men sought a meeting with the Ministry of Economic Warfare to see if anything could be done, but the government would not change its policy.

Helped Form the United Nations

In 1945, the United Nations Association was formed. It was a direct successor of the League of Nations Union. The purpose was to "help bring about a just, ordered and lasting peace, and better conditions of life for all mankind." Working out of the organization's first home office in London, Murray was integral to its creation. He was part of the early leadership that also included Viscount Cecil, C.R. Attlee, Lady Violet Bonham Carter, and Churchill. Murray would, in fact, become the first president of the general counsel of the United Nations. He would also serve as its joint president from the end of the war until his death in 1957.

Passed Away in Oxford

Murray died on May 20, 1957, in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. After he had retired from teaching from Oxford University he always remained close to the institution. After his death, his family, friends, and fellow Oxfam supporters created a small capital fund to establish the Gilbert Murray Memorial Lecture Fund. The lectures, held every other year, feature subjects relating to international affairs, particularly relief and overseas development.

Online

"Before Oct. 5th - The Origins of Oxfam," Oxfam.org website,http://www.oxfam.org.uk/atwork/history/downloads/oxfamorigins.rtf (March 15, 2003).

Haslett, Michael, and Isobel Haslett, "Buchan and the Classics:School and University," John Buchan Society website,http://216.239.33.100/search?q_cache:BGKjHqpOOmYC:www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk/classics.htm+Gilbert+Murray&=en&=UTF-8 (March 15, 2003).

"Historical Overview: 1924-Present," iwa.org website,http://www.iwa.org/History/history.html (March 15, 2003).

Meade, James E. "Autobiography," Nobel e-Museum website,http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1977/meadeautobio.html (March 15, 2003).

"Murray, Gilbert," Encyclopedia.com website,http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/m/murray-G1i.asp (March 15, 2003).

"Murray, Gilbert," infoplease.com website,www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0834503.html (March 15, 2003).

"Murray, Gilbert," Slider.com website,http://www.slider.com/enc/36000/Murray-Gilbert.htm (March 15, 2003).

Powell, Jim, "Voice for Liberty in the Ancient World,"LibertyStory.net website,www.libertystory.net/LSARTSANCIENTGREEKVOICES.htm (March 15, 2003).

Born on January 2, 1866, Murray was a Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University who was a leader in the psychical research community in early twentieth-century England. He believed he had the capacity for thought-transference and declared in an interview for the Sunday Express in the summer of 1929, that he discovered his thought-reading faculty by accident while playing guessing games with his children. At the insistence of his wife, Murray commenced experimenting with grown-ups.

Ultimately he became a famous figure in psychical research for his experiments in thought-transference with investigator Eleanor Sidgwick, the results of which were published in the 1924 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. Sidgwick considered these findings "perhaps the most important ever brought to the notice of the society."

Murray was president of the Society for Psychical Research, London, 1915-16. He did not believe in communication with the dead, but he had reached an agreement with psychologist William James that there exists a "stream of consciousness, with a vivid centre and dim edges." In moments of inattentiveness, subconscious impressions register themselves and afterward form a sort of dim memory, which may account for certain phases of clairvoyance. Murray suspected that around our perceptions is a fringe of still more delicate sensing apparatus. The "feelers" of this apparatus are constantly registering contacts with their surroundings, but the impressions are too weak to enter the field of normal consciousness. This fringe of consciousness is the key to telepathy.

In addition, Murray published a number of books concerned with Greek traditions in literature and poetry. He died at Oxford, England, May 20, 1957.

Sources:

Essays in Honor of Gilbert Murray. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.

Murray, Gilbert. Gilbert Murray: An Unfinished Autobiography. London: Allen and Unwin, 1960.

Sidgwick, Eleanor. "Report on Further Experiments in Thought-Transference Carried Out by Professor Gilbert Murray, LL.D, Litt.D." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 34 (1924).

Quotes:

"Depression, gloom, pessimism, despair, discouragement, these slay ten human beings to every one murdered by typhoid, influenza, diabetes or pneumonia. If tuberculosis is the great white plague, then fear is the great black plague."

For the Unabomber victim, see Gilbert Murray (lobbyist).

Gilbert Murray

George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian born British^[1] classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the basis for the character of Adolphus Cusins in his friend Shaw's play Major Barbara, and also appears as the chorus figure in Tony Harrison's play Fram.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Classicist 2.1 Academic career 2.2 Greek drama 2.3 The Ritualists 3 In public life 3.1 Liberal Party politics 3.2 Activist 3.3 Involvement with Wells 4 Humanism 5 Awards and honours 6 Family 7 Works 7.1 Translation 7.2 Classical studies 7.3 Other 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Early life

He was born George Gilbert Aimé Murray in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. His father, Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, was a Member of the New South Wales Parliament who died in 1873; his mother, Agnes Ann Murray (née Edwards), ran a girls' school in Sydney for a few years. Then, in 1877, Agnes emigrated with Gilbert to the UK, where she died in 1891.^[2]

Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford.

Classicist

Academic career

In 1889–1899, he was Professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow.^[3] There was a break in his academic career from 1899 to 1905, when he returned to Oxford; he interested himself in dramatic and political writing. After 1908 he was Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford.^[4]

From 1925-1926 Murray was the Charles Elliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard University.

Greek drama

Murray is perhaps now best known for his verse translations of Greek drama, which were popular and prominent in their time. As a poet he was generally taken to be a follower of Swinburne; and had little sympathy from the modernist poets of the rising generation.^[5] The staging of Athenian drama in English did have its own cultural impact.^[6] He had earlier experimented with his own prose dramas, without much success.

Over time he worked through almost the entire canon of Athenian dramas (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides in tragedy; Aristophanes in comedy). From Euripides, the Hippolytus and The Bacchae (together with The Frogs of Aristophanes; first edition, 1902);^[7] the Medea, Trojan Women, and Electra (1905–1907); Iphigenia in Tauris (1910); The Rhesus (1913) were presented at the Court Theatre, in London.^[8] In the United States Granville Barker and his wife Lillah McCarthy gave outdoor performances of The Trojan Women and Iphigenia in Tauris at various colleges (1915).

The translation of Œdipus Rex was a commission from W. B. Yeats.^[9] Until 1912 this could not have been staged for a British audience. Murray was drawn into the public debate on censorship that came to a head in 1907^[10] and was pushed by William Archer, whom he knew well from Glasgow , George Bernard Shaw^[11], and others such as John Galsworthy, J. M. Barrie and Edward Garnett. A petition was taken to Herbert Gladstone, then Home Secretary, early in 1908.

The Ritualists

He was one of the scholars associated with Jane Harrison in the myth-ritual school of mythography.^[12] They met first in 1900.^[13]. He wrote an appendix on the Orphic tablets for her 1903 book Prolegomena; he later contributed to her Themis (1912)^[14].

Francis Fergusson wrote

“

In general the ritual had its agon, or sacred combat, between the old King, or god or hero, and the new, corresponding to the agons in the tragedies, and the clear "purpose" moment of the tragic rhythm. It had its Sparagmos, in which the royal victim was literally or symbolically torn asunder, followed by the lamentation and/or rejoicing of the chorus: elements which correspond to the moments of "passion". The ritual had its messenger, its recognition scene and its epiphany; various plot devices for representing the moment of "perception" which follows the "pathos". Professor Murray, in a word, studies the art of tragedy in the light of ritual forms, and thus, throws a really new light onto Aristotle's Poetics.[15]

”

In public life

Liberal Party politics

He was a lifelong supporter of the Liberal Party, lining up on the Irish Home Rule^[16] and non-imperialist sides of the splits in the party of the late nineneeth century. He supported temperance^[17], and married into a prominent Liberal, aristocratic and temperance family, the Carlisles. He made a number of moves that might have taken him into parliamentary politics, initially by tentative thoughts about standing in elections during the 1890s. In 1901-2 he was in close contact with the Independent Labour Party.^[18] But the overall effect of the Second Boer War was to drive him back into the academic career he had put on hold in 1898, resigning his Glasgow chair (effective from April 1899).

He stood five times unsuccessfully for the University constituency of Oxford between 1919 and 1929. He continued support for the Asquith faction of Liberals, after the party was split again by Lloyd George.^[19][20][21] During the 1930s the Liberals as a party were crushed electorally, but Liberal thinkers continued to write; Murray was one of the signatory Next Five Years Group formed around Clifford Allen.^[22]

Activist

As Regius Professor and literary figure, he had a platform to promote his views, which were many-sided but Whig-liberal.^[23] In 1912 he wrote an introduction to The Great Analysis: A Plea for a Rational World-Order, by his friend William Archer.^[24] During World War I he became a pamphleteer, putting a reasoned war case. He also defended C. K. Ogden against criticism^[25], and took a public interest in conscientious objection.^[26][27] Murray never took a pacifist line himself, and in fact broke an old friendship with Bertrand Russell early in the war.^[28]

He was also involved as an internationalist in the League of Nations. He was a Vice President of the League of Nations Society from 1916,^[29], and in 1917 wrote influential articles in the Daily News.^[30] At the invitation of Jan Smuts he acted in 1921/2 as a League delegate for South Africa.^[31][32] Later he was a major influence in the setting-up of Oxfam^[33][34] and of the Students' International Union (later the Institute for World Affairs).

Involvement with Wells

For a brief period Murray became closely involved with the novelist H. G. Wells. Initially this was in 1917 and connection with groups supporting a future League: Wells promoted a League of Free Nations Association (LFNA), an idea not in fact exclusive to him, since it had been 'up in the air' since Woodrow Wilson had started considering post-war settlements. Wells applied through the British propaganda office with which Murray had been connected since 1914. The two men corresponded from 1917 about League matters.^[35] Wells was bullish about pushing ahead with a British LFNA, Murray was involved already in the League of Nations Society (LNS), though not active.^[29] The political position was delicate, as Murray understood and Wells may not have: the LNS overlapped with the Union of Democratic Control, which was too far towards the pacifist end of the spectrum of opinion to be effective. Eventually in 1918 the LFNA was set up around Welsh Liberal MP David Davies, and then shortly the LFNA and LNS merged as the League of Nations Union.^[36]

Two years later, Wells called on Murray, and Murray's New College colleague Ernest Barker, to lend their names as advisers on his Outline of History. Their names duly appeared on the title page.^[37] Murray had to give evidence in the plagiarism case Deeks v. Wells that arose in 1925.^[38]

Humanism

Murray is often identified as a humanist, typically with some qualification ('classical', 'scholarly', 'engaged', 'liberal'). He joined the Rationalist Press Association, and in 1952 attended a major humanist conference. He wrote and broadcast extensively on religion (Greek, Stoic and Christian); and wrote several books dealing with his version of humanism.^[39]

A phrase from his 1910 lectures Four Stages of Greek Religion enjoyed public prominence: the "failure of nerve" of the Hellenistic world, of which a turn to irrationalism was symptomatic.^[40] His daughter Rosalind (later Rosalind Toynbee), a Catholic convert, attacked his secularism in her book of apologetics, The Good Pagan's Failure (1939).

Murray was baptised as a Roman Catholic; his father was a Catholic, his mother a Protestant. About a month before he died, when he was bedridden, his daughter Rosalind called the local Catholic priest to see him.^[41] While Rosalind subsequently claimed that Murray was then reconciled to the Catholic Church; other family members contested Rosalind's version of the events.

Awards and honours

He refused an knighthood in 1912,^[42] though he was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1941. He received honorary degrees from Glasgow, Birmingham, and Oxford. [6]

He gave the 1941 Andrew Lang lecture.

Family

Gilbert's father was Sir Terence Aubrey Murray and his brother Sir Hubert Murray.

He married Lady Mary Henrietta Howard (1865–1956), daughter of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle. When her mother Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle died in 1921, Castle Howard was bequeathed to Lady Mary. She arranged to exchange it with other property, however, with her brother Geoffrey.^[43]

Gilbert and Lady Mary had five children, three daughters and two sons, including:

• Basil Murray, 1903–1937, who was a well-known and rather louche figure, and friend of Evelyn Waugh.^[44]
  • The writer Venetia Murray (3 January 1932–1926 September 2004)^[45] was Basil's daughter, as is
  • Ann Paludan (1928 - ?), the writer on Chinese history.
    • Mark Jones, as of 2001^[update] director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, is Ann's son.

• Rosalind (1890–1967), a writer, married Arnold J. Toynbee, and was the mother of
  • Philip Toynbee, the critic, father of
    • Polly Toynbee, the journalist.^[46]

• Stephen (February 1908 - ?)a radical lawyer married Margaret (?) lived "Greenside" farm, Hallbankgate, Cumbria, became Chair of the Lake District Planning Association which allowed the controversail A66 trunk road improvements. They were parents of
  • Gilbert, killed in climbing accident in Fox's Glacier New Zealand in the 1950s
  • Alexander (Sandy), academic medievalist historian at Oxford University
  • Robin,academic, economist Chair of Twin Trading.[7]
  • Hubert, academic

The four children were evacuated during the second world war from London to the "Sands House Hotel", Brampton Cumberland, which was converted to temperance status by Lady Rosalind, and run by Mrs and Mrs James Warwick, formerly in her service, with their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth. She became an enduring friend of the boys, and, poignantly, an unfinished letter to her was found on Gilbert's body after the accident.

Works

Translation

• Andromache (1900)
• A text edition of Euripides, Fabulae, in three volumes (1901, 1904, 1910)
• Euripides: Hippolytus; The Bacchae (1902)^[7]
• Aristophanes: The Frogs (1902)^[7]
• Euripides, The Trojan Women (1905)
• Electra of Euripides (1905)
• Euripides Medea (1910)
• Iphigenia in Tauris (1911)
• Oedipus King of Thebes (1911)
• The Story of Nefrekepta. From a Demotic Papyrus. (1911)
• Rhesus of Euripides (1913)
• Andromache (1913)
• Alcestis (1915)
• Agamemnon (1920)
• Choephoroe (1923)
• Eumenides of Aeschylus (1926)
• The Oresteia (1928)
• The Suppliant Women (1930)
• Seven Against Thebes (1935)
• The Persians (1939)
• Antigone (1941)
• The Rape of the Locks: The Perikeiromene of Menander (1942)
• Fifteen Greek Plays (1943) with others
• The Arbitration: the Epitrepontes of Menander (1945)
• Oedipus at Colonus (1948)
• The Birds (1950)
• Euripides, Ion (1954)
• Collected Plays of Euripides (1954)
• The Knights (1956)

Classical studies

• The Place of Greek in Education (1889) Inaugural Lecture
• A History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897)
• The Rise of the Greek Epic (1907; second edition, 1911) Harvard University lectures
• Greek Historical Writing, and Apollo: Two Lectures (1908) with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
• The Interpretation of Ancient Greek Literature (1909) Inaugural Lecture
• Ancient Greek Literature (1911)
• English Literature and the Classics (1912) section on Tragedy, editor George Stuart Gordon
• Four Stages of Greek Religion (1913)
• Euripides and his Age (1913) in Home University Library
• Hamlet and Orestes: A Study in Traditional Types (1914) Annual Shakespeare Lecture 1914
• The Stoic Philosophy (1915) Conway Lecture
• Aristophanes and the War Party, A Study in the Contemporary Criticism of the Peloponnesian War (1919) Creighton Lecture 1918, as Our Great War and The Great War of the Ancient Greeks (US, 1920)
• Greek Historical Thought: from Homer to the Age of Heraclius (1924) with Arnold J. Toynbee
• Five Stages of Greek Religion (1925)
• The Classical Tradition in Poetry (1927) Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
• Aristophanes: A Study (1933)
• Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy (1940)
• The Wife of Heracles (1947)
• Greek Studies (1947)
• Hellenism and the Modern World (1953) radio talks

Festschrift

• Greek Poetry and Life, Essays presented to Gilbert Murray on his Seventieth Birthday, 2 January 1936 (1936)

Other

• Gobi or Shamo (1889) novel
• Carlyon Sahib (1899), play
• Liberalism and the Empire: Three Essays (1900) with Francis W. Hirst and John L. Hammond
• Thoughts on the War (1914) pamphlet
• The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey, 1906–1915 (1915), online text
• The International Crisis in Its Ethical and Psychological Aspects (1915) with others
• How Can War Ever Be Right? Oxford Pamphlets No 18/Ist Krieg je berechtigt?/La guerre. Peut-elle jamais se justifier? (1915)
• Impressions of Scandinavia in War Time (1916) pamphlet, reprint from the Westminster Gazette
• The United States and the War (1916) pamphlet
• The Way Forward: Three Articles on Liberal Policy (1917) pamphlet
• Great Britain's Sea Policy - A Reply to an American Critic (1917) pamphlet, reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly
• Faith, War and Policy (1917)
• Religio Grammatici: The Religion Of A Man Of Letters (1918) Presidential Address to the Classical Association 8 January 1918.
• Foreword to My mission to London 1912–1914 by Prince Lichnowsky, the German ambassador in London who had warned Berlin that Britain would fight in August 1914. Cassel & Co. London. (1918)
• Satanism and the World Order (1920) Adamson Lecture
• The League and Its Guarantees (1920) League of Nations Union pamphlet
• Essays and Addresses (1921)
• The Problem of Foreign Policy: A Consideration of Present Dangers and the Best Methods for Meeting Them (1921)
• Tradition and Progress (1922)
• The Ordeal of This Generation: The War, the League and the Future (1930) Halley Stewart Lectures 1928
• Augustan Book of Poetry (1931) vol. 41
• The Intelligent Man's Way To Prevent War (1933) with others
• Problems of Peace (Eighth Series) (1933) with others
• Then and Now (1935)
• Liberality and Civilisation (1938) 1937 Hibbert Lectures
• Stoic, Christian and Humanist (1940)
• The Deeper Causes of the War and its Issues (1940) with others
• World Order Papers, No. 2 (1940) pamphlet, The Royal Institute of International Affairs
• Anchor of Civilisation (1942) Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture 1942
• A Conversation with Bryce (1943) James Bryce Memorial Lecture, 12 November 1943
• Myths And Ethics, or Humanism And The World's Need (1944) Conway Hall lecture
• Humanism: Three B.B.C. talks (1944) with Julian Huxley and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham
• Victory and After (1945)
• From the League to the U.N. (1948)
• Spires of Liberty (1948) with others
• Andrew Lang: The Poet (1948) Andrew Lang Lecture 1947
• The Meaning of Freedom (1956) essays, with others
• Humanist Essays (1964) taken from Essays and Addresses, Stoic, Christian and Humanist

Notes

1. ^ Australian by birth, he returned to Australia in the 1890s for a visit. It has been lamented that perhaps the most famous Australian of his time, [he] expressed no interest whatever in Australia. [1]
2. ^ Wilson, p.3
3. ^ The most famous of his students there was John Buchan, whom Murray helped to take a further degree at Oxford.[2] Others were H. N. Brailsford and Janet Spens. He left Glasgow because his health broke down.
4. ^ He was a noted and popular lecturer. Amongst those on whom he had a particular influence was Gilbert Highet.[3]
5. ^ T. S. Eliot was rude: As a poet, Mr. Murray is merely a very insignificant follower of the pre-Raphaelite movement. (from Euripides and Professor Murray, an essay in The Sacred Wood (1920)). Swinburne was in fact a youthful enthusiasm of Murray's, and Eliot's identification of it has stuck; but Murray probably preferred Tennyson for content among the Victorians (Mary Berenson reported this in 1903, and it still held good 50 years on, West p.249.)
6. ^ From the 1880s onwards, amateur performances in Greek had been popular, particularly for students dramaticals. See on this The Invention of Jane Harrison (2000) by Mary Beard.
7. ^ ^{a b c} First published in: The Athenian Drama, vol. III: Euripides (Euripides: Hippolytus; The Bacchae. Aristophanes: The Frogs. Translated into English rhyming verse), 1902 (OCLC 6591082); many reprints (together, separate, repackaged).
8. ^ See The Court theatre 1904–1907: a commentary and criticism by Desmond MacCarthy, 1966 reissue with Stanley hey u punkWeintraub.
9. ^ R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life I p.334; early 1905. Foster also notes that Yeats and Murray corresponded about the Stage Society. Yeats was being provocative: Oedipus Rex could not be publicly presented on the British stage[4], because the incest was unacceptable to the censors. Foster (II p.338) notes that it was two decades later that the play was actually performed, but by then Yeats had adapted the Murray text, and R. C. Jebb's, and made cuts, for a rather different result.
10. ^ Wilson p.172
11. ^ Shaw was a friend, from Murray's time around 1902 looking into Fabianism—Shaw had used Murray's marriage to Lady Mary Howard in 1905 as the basis for that of Barbara and Adolphus in Major Barbara; see for example Michael Holroyd's biography of Shaw, for Murray providing ideas for Act III; also "In More Ways than One": Major Barbara's Debt to Gilbert Murray, Sidney P. Albert, Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May, 1968), pp. 123-140
12. ^ Noel Annan (The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses, 1999, p.243) wrote Gilbert Murray's remark that no one can write about Greek religion without being influenced by Jane Harrison seems truer now than when he made it.
13. ^ West p.132 say 1902 in Cambridge; but Wilson p. 119 says 1900 in Switzerland. In both cases it was through A. W. Verrall. Both books say they met at Bernard Berenson's Florence home in 1903, as Harrison was finishing Prolegomena, and discussed it.
14. ^ Excursus on the Ritual Forms Preserved in Greek Tragedy; reprinted in The Myth and Ritual Theory (1998), edited by Robert A. Segal. The editorial introduction writes (p.95) Murray views tragedy as the legacy of the ritualistic enactment of the myth of the life and death of Dionysius.
15. ^ Fergusson, The Idea of a Theatre (1949), reprinted in Segal, p.260
16. ^ Wilson, p.20: Murray founded an Oxford Home Rule League in 1886
17. ^ Wilson, p.21
18. ^ Wilson, p.75
19. ^ Wilson, see index p.467 for details and his academic elections against Lloyd George and Bonar Law, which were equally unsuccessful.
20. ^ In 1921 Murray was trying a scheme on Asquith to promote a new progressive grouping under Edward Grey (West p.184); but this proved impractical kingmaking.
21. ^ Noel Annan, in Our Age: The Generation that made Post-War Britain (1990) provides (p.236) a list of Liberal Party intellectuals of the 1920s capable of attracting the younger generation; Murray is listed there with Maynard Keynes, Hubert Henderson, Walter Layton, Ramsay Muir, Ernest Simon, Roy Harrod. Another list including Murray (p.32) is with J. A. Hobson, L. T. Hobhouse, J. L. Hammond and his wife Barbara (both close friends of Murray), Graham Wallas, H. W. Nevinson and H. W. Massingham, as 'the newly educated classes of the left' and 'reformers'.
22. ^ ... after Lloyd George had become the Independent Liberal in 1931, many remaining Liberals participated in the Next Five Years group, who proposed an aggressive industrial policy and management of banking and finance similar to the Yellow Book. It is true that the group called themselves nonpartisan, and in fact one of the core members was Harold Macmillan. However, as Freeden indicates, the Liberal tendency of the group was obvious as a whole. Geoffrey Crowther and Salter, both Liberals, were responsible for the first section of the book dealing with domestic affairs. The signatories included Layton, Rowntree, Cadbury, Isaac Foot, H. A. L. Fisher, Gilbert Murray, J. L. Hammond, and Hobson, other than several Liberal MPs. From paper by Tomoari Matsunaga, PDF.
23. ^ Robert L. Fowler, who has read and reflected on a huge amount of Murray's work, places him in context: a Liberal concerned with social organization, a League of Nations supporter, a vegetarian offended by the slaughter of the Gadarene swine, decent and generous, deeply influenced by the historicism of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. Murray wrote Five Stages of Greek Religion in part to "counteract Jane Harrison's exaltation of the chthonic spirits by a vigorous defence of the Olympian deities," who for Murray characterized the Greek mind during the period of "true Hellenism" ending with the end of the Peloponnesian War. Murray's gods were morally, intellectually, and politically good, opposing the "megalomania and blood-lust" of earlier Greek religion and favoring the city-state. This is from Daniel P. Tompkins writing in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Wiliamowitz and Murray had been in touch as correspondents since the mid-1890s (Wilson p.55).
24. ^ It proposed the founding of an International College of Systematic Sociology. Conposed of scholars and politicians from all nations, the College would monitor and interpret global affairs, its university anticipating the crises to be solved by its parliamentarians. Archer solicited the introduction from Murray for this utopian scheme, and then had it published anonymously as far as identifying himself as author. Andrew Carnegie was approached for funding, without result. (Peter Whitebrook (1993) William Archer: A Biography. p.307.)
25. ^ Wilson p.236; this was in March 1917
26. ^ In the case of the Quaker Stephen Hobhouse, Murray wrote an introduction to a pamphlet I appeal unto Caesar: the case of the conscientious objector by his mother Margaret. His father, Henry Hobhouse, was a Liberal MP from 1885 to 1906, and although a 'country squire' (Concise Dictionary of National Biography) was a Privy Councillor; and brother to L. T. Hobhouse, an old friend of Murray's. Murray was incensed at the treatment meted out to Stephen Hobhouse, who had been rejected as not a genuine objector of conscience (The Soul as It is and How to Deal with It, 1918 paper), and further wrote an introduction to Hobhouse's post-war book on prisons.
27. ^ He intervened directly in the case of Raymond Postgate (Wilson p.237). In a scare about the possible application of martial law to objectors, he contacted Lord Derby, the Secretary of War, and Herbert Asquith the Prime Minister face-to-face (Wilson p. 239).
28. ^ Murray was active in helping Russell when the latter was imprisoned; see West p.145 on pacifism, Wilson p.241 on aid to Russell. Murray, close to Herbert Asquith, had no time for David Lloyd George who displaced him as Prime Minister.
29. ^ ^{a b} Wilson p.247
30. ^ Wilson, p.248
31. ^ Wilson p.249
32. ^ Murray's League activities extended to post-WWI intellectual revival, where he spoke up for funding for Germany (then not a League member); see E. M. Forster's life of Murray's deputy Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson.
33. ^ Oxfam was not initially known by that name at that point, post-WWII. A leading figure in this campaign was Professor Gilbert Murray (1866–1957).[...] He was a founder of the League of Nations Union, a citizen support group for international peace. As famine in Greece became severe in the autumn of 1941 the League of Nations Union appointed a 'Committee on Starvation in Occupied Countries'. In October 1941 Murray and Lord Robert Cecil, Viscount Chelwood (1864–1958), Joint Presidents, sought a meeting with the Ministry of Economic Warfare to establish whether anything more could be done to relieve starvation in occupied countries.[...]Murray remained in Oxford after his retirement and was closely associated with the development of Oxfam as a founder and trustee. After the war he was joint president, 1945–1947 and 1949–1957, and sole president, 1947–1949, of the United Nations Association. From RTF file at www.oxfam.org.ni/about_us/history/oxfamorigins.rtf .
34. ^ A Gilbert Murray Memorial Lecture for Oxfam has been given from 1959, endowed after his death. Speakers have included: Graça Machel (2005); Amartya Sen (2002); Gordon Brown (2000); Juan Sonavía (1996); Philippa Foot (1992); Desmond Tutu (1990); Crispin Tickell (1989); Smangaliso Mkhatshwa (1985); Prince Sadruddin (1983); David Owen (1978); August Lindt (1959); and by J. K. Galbraith, Conor Cruise O'Brien.
35. ^ A. B. McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet (2000) p.143
36. ^ [The FNLA] members were mostly good haters of Germany and people of inportance and influence [...] The idea of a League was becoming reputable chiefly owing to President Wilson [...] ... The 'Society' [LNS] sent its Chairman W. H. Dickinson, G.L.D., J. A. Hobson and L. S. Woolf. The 'Association' [LFNA] sent C. A. McCurdy, Gilbert Murray, Wickham Steed, H. G. Wells. The dinner was a success [...]. E.M. Forster, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, p.169.
37. ^ The other advisers were E. Ray Lankester, Harry Johnston.
38. ^ McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet covers this all thoroughly
39. ^ No one was exactly sure what Murray believed. His publisher Stanley Unwin took him as Rationalist and not Christian, but found him most Christian-like. (Memoirs of a Publisher). Ford Madox Ford, not always a reliable witness, describes in Return to Yesterday (p.229) a rigmarole Murray produced at a house party of Edward Clodd's, around 1905: Murray had some sort of patent faith of which all I can remember is that a black velvet coffin played a part in it. Murray's interest in some aspects of parapsychology is well documented. A. R. Orage's criticism of Murray (The New Age, 1913) as 'eclectic' applies. E. R. Dodds, Murray's pupil and successor, was advised to keep away from religion; Dodds might be taken as a more explicit rationalist in a line descending from Frazer. Murray's view on religion wasn't really separate from his Whiggishness.
40. ^ Stephen Weldon, writing on a humanist site, argues that In many ways, the failure of nerve thesis was merely one version of an anticlerical view of history common during the Enlightenment period, a view that depicted the religionists as cowards and the rationalists as heroes. Murray's innovation was to encapsulate that attitude in a compelling argument, expressing historical causality in terms of individual psychology. Weldon goes on to point to the way Sidney Hook later took up the theme.
41. ^ "The Faith and Dr Gilbert Murray", John Crozier, New Blackfriars, Volume 72, Issue 848, Page 188-193, April 1991
42. ^ Wilson p.193
43. ^ Wilson, p.261-2. George Howard, who was Chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation 1981-3, was Geoffrey's son.
44. ^ Basil Murray died in Spain, having travelled out as a journalist to cover the Spanish Civil War, of pneumonia. Wilson p.343.
45. ^ Obituary in The Guardian
46. ^ Philip's elder brother Lawrence married Jean Asquith, and had some reputation as an artist.[5]

References

• Arnold J. Toynbee and Jean Smith (editors) (1960), An Unfinished Autobiography
• Francis West (1984), Gilbert Murray: A Life
• Duncan Wilson (1987), Gilbert Murray OM
• Karl Max, Fürst von Lichnowsky

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Gilbert Murray

• Works by Gilbert Murray at Project Gutenberg
• BBK page, with very thorough bibliography (German)
• Works by Gilbert Murray

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