Professor George Huxley, DLit (died 30 November 2022, aged 90)
Obituary can be viewed online at:
https://www.bsa.ac.uk/2022/12/08/prof-george-leonard-huxley-1932-2022/
It is with great sadness that we note the passing, peacefully in Oxfordshire, of Prof. George Leonard Huxley at the age of ninety.
Huxley first came to the BSA from Magdalen College and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and he was appointed Assistant Director for the 1956-57 and 1957-58 academic years. During his time as AD he conducted a study of Early Greek chronology and history, specifically the historical development of Greek epic poetry. He also did a study on the early history of Argos. In addition to his studies he took part in the excavations at Knossos under the then BSA Director, Sinclair Hood.
He was readmitted to the BSA in 1961 when he, Nicholas Coldstream and Richard Hope-Simpson first went out to Kythera to assess the site of Kastri, discovered by Sylvia Benton in 1931. Huxley directed excavations at Kastri for three seasons, 1962-1965, and published the findings with Nicholas Coldstream in 1972, Kythera: excavations and studies conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British School at Athens. He developed a close connection with Kythera and continued visiting the island throughout his life. In 2018, he took part in an excellent documentary, entitled Παραθεριστές της Ιστορίας (directed by Giorgos Didymiotis), a stochastic voyage into Kythera’s past.
Huxley taught for twenty years at Queen’s University in Belfast as a professor of Greek (1962-1983). During this time, he returned to the BSA as Visiting Fellow 1972-73. In 1984 he was also elected Senior Vice-President of the Federation Internationale des Societes of d’Etudes Classiques. From 1986 to 1989, Huxley served as Director of the Gennadius Library at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He became honorary professor of Greek at Trinity College Dublin in 1989 and in 1999 was appointed honorary professor of the Classical Association of Ireland. In 2003 Huxley was the keynote speaker at the 16th International Conference on Classical Archaeology in Boston.
Throughout his career, Huxley was a prolific writer and he published and edited the following books, in addition to hundreds of articles: Achaeans and the Hittites (1960), The Early Ionians (1966), Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis (1969), Kythera: Excavations and Studies Conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British School at Athens (1972), Pindar’s Vision of the Past (1975), On Aristotle and Greek Society (1979), Homer and the Travellers (1988).
He married Davina Best in 1957 and during their 64 years together they did a lot of travelling, particularly in Central Asia, Iran, China and India. George’s other great interest was railways from which he derived enormous pleasure.
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