Martin Litchfield West

Martin Litchfield West, OM, FBA (23 September 1937 – 13 July 2015) was a British philologist and classical scholar. In recognition of his contribution to scholarship, he was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2014.

Quotes

Profound thoughts are not created by presenting simple thoughts obscurely.
- CR 15 (1965), p. 222.

You can always find something in Hesychius.
- Hesiod. Theogony (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), p. 238

Since the normal tendency is to simplify, to trivialize, to eliminate the unfamiliar word or construction, the rule is praestat difficilior lectio. [. . .] When we choose the 'more difficult' reading, however, we must be sure that it is in itself a plausible reading. The principle should not be used in support of dubious syntax, or phrasing that it would not have been natural for the author to use. There is an important difference between a more difficult reading and a more unlikely reading.
- Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique Applicable to Greek and Latin Texts (Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1973), p. 51.
- Footnote: The principle was clearly enunciated by Clericus, Ars Critica (Amsterdam, 1696), ii.293. For earlier hints of it see S. Timpanaro, La Genesi del metodo del Lachmann (Firenze 1963), p. 21 n. 1.

His reputation as an emender stood as high as almost anyone's [. . .], and he was not the man to be bothered by the absence of manuscript support. No one worked harder at collecting the evidence for the text of the lyric poets or showed such restless zeal for uncovering its problems. He wanted not only δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ᾿ εἶναι.
- Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1974), p. 64; on Theodor Bergk

We must not think of Greek literature as beginning in the eighth century but as coming into view. [. . .] Of course not all branches of literature are of equal antiquity; but we must not judge their age by when they first appeared in written form.
- K. Dover et al., Ancient Greek Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 10–11

In Greek music, as in other aspects of early Greek culture, we are faced with the complex product of Indo-European inheritance, Aegean and oriental environment, and Hellenic art and craft. It is our duty and delight to investigate all three of these elements.
- Ancient Greek Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 390.

Oral poetry has inspired much anal prose.
- Hellenica, vol. III (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 486.