CAAS TRIBUTE TO HELEN H. BACON

On behalf of the membership of CAAS, the Board of Directors deeply regret the loss of Professor Helen H. Bacon, who died on November 9, 2007, at age 88. Before her academic career began, Helen served as a code breaker for the Navy in World War II. After teaching at Smith College from 1953 to 1961, she was Professor of Greek and Latin at Barnard College from 1961 to 1989.

Her major publications consist of the study Barbarians in Greek Tragedy (Yale 1961) and a translation, with poet Anthony Hecht, of Aeschylus's Seven against Thebes, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1973. A number of seminal articles on Petronius, Vergil, and Plato as well as Aeschylus reflect the range of her literary interests. A memorable paper that she gave at Emory in 1989 on “The Furies’ Homecoming” to an audience including former students appeared as an article in Classical Philology in 2001. Helen was also distinguished in professional service, especially as Director of the American Philological Association, then as its Vice President, and finally, in 1985, as its President.

Helen was a splendid teacher and mentor to both undergraduates and graduate students and a colleague generous with help and advice to many classicists. In her Greek classes at Barnard, her obvious command of virtually every nuance of ancient Greek made you aspire to her very high standards. She was a vital presence in many ways. Frequently taking walks with students along Riverside Park, she would identify vegetation and regretted that, in Manhattan, she could not wake up to the sound of birds outside her window.

When I noticed an oversized bird feeder on the deck outside her living room during a visit to her home in Massachusetts last year, she enthusiastically commented on this aviary as a hummingbird brushed against the picture window. Helen was also pleased to learn that, after hearing about the experience of memorizing poetry every week in her beginning Greek course, my own students were thrilled to get a handout from me on one of her favorite poems. And she smiled as I recited that same Sappho lyric to her one more time.

Barbara Pavlock, CAAS Secretary
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