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Gertrude Rachel Levy

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Gertrude Rachel Levy FSA (5 November 1883 – 10 October 1966) was a British author and cultural historian writing about comparative mythology, matriarchy, epic poetry and archaeology. She published many of her works under the name "G. Rachel Levy".[5]

Gertrude Rachel Levy
Photograph of Gertrude Rachel Levy, former librarian, classical scholar and archaeologist, circa 1900
Photograph of Gertrude Rachel Levy, former librarian, classical scholar and archaeologist, circa 1900
Born5 November 1883[1]
Aliwal North, Cape Colony[2]
Died10 October 1966 (aged 82)[3][4]
Hendon, London, England
Pen nameG. Rachel Levy
Occupationwriter, archaeologist
LanguageEnglish
Notable awardsFellow, Society of Antiquaries of London, 1947

Early life and education

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Levy was born in Aliwal North, Cape Colony, to Jewish parents Benjamin Levy, a German emigrant, and his wife, Florence Beaver, from Manchester.[6] Her father was a bead and glass merchant born in Posen.[7] Her maternal grandfather, Louis Beaver, emigrated from Prussia and married Staffordshire-born Rachel Mayer. The family moved to England when she was young and she grew up in Kensington.[8]

Levy earned an M.A. in Classics in 1924 from the University of London,[9] and worked from 1926 to 1928 with the Department of Antiquities in Mandatory Palestine.

Career

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From 1930 to 1936, Levy was associated with an expedition to Iraq, sponsored by the University of Chicago. Later in life she lived in London,[5] where from 1939 to 1949 she was the librarian of the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies.[10] The Society of Antiquaries of London elected her as a Fellow in 1947.[11]

As did Alexander Marshack, but earlier, Levy made an observation to the effect that in the earliest known representations of humans and animals together, the humans are shown without weapons.[12] To the theory of hero archetypes, she contributed in The Sword from the Rock a three-phase evolutionary pattern, considered neglected by Brown and Fishwick: creation narratives, then quest pattern, then fraternal conflict.[13] Theodore Ziolkowski states that Levy included much of ancient epic in the works that can be traced back to ritual.[14] Eleazar M. Meletinsky[15] writes

[...] the monumental epics of agrarian civilizations undoubtedly use models linked to seasonal rites [...] On this point, Levy's work is interesting, despite its exaggerations, and goes beyond Murray's pioneering efforts.

Levy was an influence on Northrop Frye, as he himself acknowledged, and references to her work are common in his "Third Book" and "Late" notebooks.[16]

Works

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Library resources about
Gertrude Rachel Levy
By Gertrude Rachel Levy
  • The Gate of Horn: A Study of the Religious Concepts of the Stone Age, and Their Influence upon European Thought (1948; republished 1963, Faber & Faber, ISBN 978-0571056606)[17]
  • The Sword from the Rock: An Investigation into the Origins of Epic Literature and the Development of the Hero (1953)[18]
  • The Violet Crown: An Athenian Autobiography (1954)[19]
  • Plato in Sicily (1956)[20]
  • The Phoenix' Nest: A Study in Religious Transformations (1961)[21]

Levy also edited The Myths of Plato (1905) by John Alexander Stewart for a 1960 edition, with revisions, translation of Greek text, and an introduction.[22]

References

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  1. ^ 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. ^ 1901, 1911 England Census
  3. ^ "Miss Rachel Levy". The Times. 20 October 1966. p. 14.
  4. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995
  5. ^ a b Dolman, Bernard, ed. (1954), Who's who in Art, Volume 7, Art Trade Press, Limited, p. 427, LEVY, Gertrude Rachel, M.A. (1924), F.S.A. (1947); Dept. of Antiquities, Palestine (1926-28); University of Chicago's Expeditions to Iraq (artist to expeditions) (1930-36); ... Address: 40 Rotherwick Rd., N.W.11. Club: University Women's Club. Signs work: "G. Rachel Levy."
  6. ^ 1891 England Census
  7. ^ UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916
  8. ^ 1851 England Census; 1871 England Census
  9. ^ Calendar. University of London. 1925. p. 513. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. ^ Joint Library of the Hellenic & Roman Societies/Institute of Classical Studies Library, blogpost 14 July 2017, Former Librarian: Gertrude Rachel Levy
  11. ^ "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries". The Antiquaries Journal. 27 (3–4): 209–215. 1947. doi:10.1017/S0003581500016978. S2CID 246048173.
  12. ^ Govaerts, Robert (29 August 2012). Cosmic Prayer and Guided Transformation: Key Elements of the Emergent Christian Cosmology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 96. ISBN 9781630875909. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  13. ^ Browne, Ray Broadus; Fishwick, Marshall William (1983). The Hero in Transition. Popular Press. p. 53. ISBN 9780879722388. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  14. ^ Ziolkowski, Theodore (18 November 2011). Gilgamesh among Us: Modern Encounters with the Ancient Epic. Cornell University Press. p. 169. ISBN 9780801463426. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  15. ^ The Poetics of Myth, English translation p. 74
  16. ^ Frye, Northrop (2004). Northrop Frye's Notebooks on Romance. University of Toronto Press. pp. 461 note 29. ISBN 9780802039477. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  17. ^ Reviews of The Gate of Horn:
  18. ^ Reviews of The Sword from the Rock:
  19. ^ Review of The Violet Crown:
  20. ^ Reviews of Plato in Sicily:
  21. ^ Review of The Phoenix' Nest:
    • Scaligero, Massimo (March–June 1963). "Review". East and West. 14 (1–2): 118–119. JSTOR 29754740.
  22. ^ Wynne-Tyson, Jon (2004). Finding the Words: A Publishing Life. Michael Russell. p. 57. ISBN 9780859552875.
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