Classical scholar Patricia Easterling has died at the age of 92. She was recognised for her work in ancient theatre studies, where she argued that Greek tragedy continued to flourish throughout antiquity, rather than ending in the fifth century BC.
Her approach moved scholarship from technical textual study to an appreciation of plays as records of live performances, considering their aesthetic and sociohistorical contexts. This perspective highlighted how plays were enacted by skilled actors in various venues across the Greco-Roman world for centuries.
Ms Easterling was appointed the 36th regius professor of Greek at Cambridge in 1994, becoming the first woman to hold the position since its establishment in 1540. She had previously served as professor of Greek at University College London from 1987.
Among her contributions, she co-founded Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics in 1970 with Ted Kenney. She also played a pivotal role in setting up the Cambridge Greek Lexicon and co-edited several significant works, including Greek Religion and Society and The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, both published in 1985.
Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Ms Easterling gained a first-class degree with distinction in classics from Newnham College, Cambridge. She retired in 2001, having been made a fellow of the British Academy in 1998 and awarded honorary positions and doctorates from various international universities.