Agathe Thornton

From Wikitia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Agathe Thornton
Add a Photo
Born
Agathe Schwarzschild

(1910-11-20)November 20, 1910
Germany
Died21 October 2006(2006-10-21) (aged 95)
Dunedin, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealand
OccupationAcademic
TitleProfessor, Professor Emeritus (from 1975)
Spouse(s)Harry Thornton
Parent(s)Karl Schwarzschild (father)
Else Schwarzschild (mother)
RelativesMartin Schwarzschild (brother)
Alfred Schwarzschild (brother)
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Göttingen
Newnham College, Cambridge
Academic work
Discipline
  • Classics
  • Māori language
InstitutionsUniversity of Otago
Notable worksPeople and themes in Homer's Odyssey (1970)

Agathe Henriette Franziska Thornton (20 November 1910 – 21 October 2006)[1] was a New Zealand academic specialising in classics and Māori language|Māori studies. She was born in Germany and moved to New Zealand in 1947. She taught in the Classics Department of the University of Otago from 1948, eventually being appointed as Professor of Classics, until her retirement in 1975.

Early life

Thornton was born Agathe Schwarzschild on 20 November 1910.[2] Her father was the physicist Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916), her mother Else Schwarzschild Birth name|née Rosenbach; and she had two younger brothers, the German-American physicist Martin Schwarzschild (1912-1997), and Alfred Schwarzschild (1914-1944).[2][3] While living in Germany she studied at the University of Göttingen.[3]

In 1933 she moved to the United Kingdom, fleeing Nazi Germany because of Jewish heritage on her father's side. There she studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, supported by the astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, and with financial aid from an anonymous donor who was later identified as Sir Arthur Eddington. At the outbreak of World War II she avoided internment on the Isle of Man thanks to support from William Michael Herbert Greaves|W. H. M. Greaves, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, who stood bail for her. In Scotland she met and married the Presbyterian minister Harry Thornton.[3]

Academic career

Thornton published her first academic article in 1945 while living in Newmachar, Aberdeenshire.[4] In 1947 her family moved to New Zealand,[3] and from 1948 onwards both Agathe and her husband Harry taught as lecturers at the University of Otago in Dunedin.[3][5] Her appointment was the occasion for overturning a university prohibition on hiring married women with children.[5] In 1970 she published her best-known book, People and themes in Homer's Odyssey.

After retirement in 1975 she continued publishing in the field of classics, while also learning the Māori language for the purpose of scholarship.[3] In 1986 she presented the Macmillan Brown Lectures at the University of Otago on the theme 'Maori oral literature as seen by a classicist'.[6] These lectures were published the following year in a book of the same title.

Her subsequent research publications were in the field of Māori studies. These included new editions of Māori oral literature (Te Uamairangi's lament for his house, 1986; The story of Maui by Te Rangikaheke, 1992), studies of Māori Creation_myth|cosmological myths (Ancient Maori cosmologies from the Wairarapa, 1998; The birth of the universe. Te whānautanga o te ao tukupū, 2004), and articles on linguistics and oral narrative techniques.

References

  1. "In memory of Agathe Thornton 20/11/1910 – 21/10/2006". Tributes Online. 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Voigt, Hans-Heinrich (1992). "Biography of Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916)". Karl Schwarzschild: collected works. Berlin/Heidelberg/New York: Springer. p. 18.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Mestel, L. (1999). "Martin Schwarzschild. 31 May 1912-10 April 1997". Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society of London. 45: 472.
  4. Thornton, Agathe (1945). "The Hebrew conception of speech as a creative energy". The Hibbert journal. 44: 134.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Pollock, Kerryn. "Kōrero: Classical and foreign-language studies. Agathe Thornton". Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  6. "Macmillan Brown Lectures". University of Canterbury. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

External links

Add External links

This article "Agathe Thornton" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.