Wiktor Steffen

Wiktor Steffen (1903 - 1997) was a classical philologist and a Hellenist, alumnus of the University of Poznan who also studied in Berlin. He was a recognised specialist on the Ancient Greek theatre. He worked as an author of multiple critical editions, a translator, a lexicographer and an educator. He was associated with the Poznan and Wroclaw Universities but also worked at the Leipzig University.

His academic achievements include analyses of the Latin influence on Polish literature, works concerning satyr plays, Greek mime and tragedy, Greek lyric poetry, elegies and the works of Menander, Apollonius of Rhodes, Aeschylus, but also, fewer in number, publications on Roman literature and, in later life, on the history of science.

Steffen prepared critical editions of the works of Greek satire authors, Ichneutae [Trackers] of Sophocles et al. His translations include Antologia liryki aleksandryjskiej (Anthology of Alexandrine Lyrical Poetry), Works and Days by Hesiod, Antologia liryki greckiej (Anthology of Greek Lyrical Poetry), Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes.

He was also a recognized educator, together with J. Horowski he devised an 8-part coursebook, Vox Latina.

On behalf of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he had functional responsibility for the Greek-Polish Dictionary produced by Zofia Abramowiczówna. He himself published the Warmian Dictionary - a dictionary of the Warmian dialect/vernacular, which crowned his interests of linguistics and the Warmian region, to which he devoted about 20 scholarly papers.

source of bio: ipsb.nina.gov.pl,  (accessed: August 13, 2019)

Courtesy of Muzeum Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego

Jan Horowski

Jan Horowski (1909-1976) was a classical philologist associated with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he wrote/defended his doctoral thesis under the guidance of Professor Steffen. His academic achievements include monographs, scientific articles, textbooks and methodological guides for teachers. His main interests focussed on the methodology of Latin language teaching and folklore in the ancient culture, but also the folklore of Greater Poland’s villages, about which he has also written and published. His extensive experience of teaching Latin at all levels, allowed him to collaborate with Professor Steffen and devise the textbook Vox Latina and methodological guides for Latin teachers.

source of bio: I. Lewandowski, "Jan Horowski, filolog klasyczny - uczony i pedagog. Wspomnienie ucznia w czterdziestą rocznicę śmierci" w: Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae XXVI/2 (2016): 167-175 In memoriam (accessed: August 13, 2019)