Erich Bethe

Erich Julius Adolf Bethe (2 May 1863 – 19 October 1940) was a German classical philologist who was a native of Stettin.

In 1887 he earned his doctorate from the University of Göttingen, later receiving his habilitation at Bonn in 1891. From 1893 to 1897 he was an associate professor at the University of Rostock, afterwards serving as a professor of classical philology at the Universities of Basel (1897-1903), Giessen (1903–06) and Leipzig (1906-1931). In 1927–28 he was rector at the University of Leipzig.

In 1933 Bethe signed the Loyalty Oath of German Professors to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist State.

His better known publications are as follows:

• Thebanische Heldenlieder (Theban heroic songs), 1891.
• Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Alterthum (Prolegomena on the history of theaters in antiquity), 1896.
• Homer, Dichtung und Sage (Homer, poetry and legend), 1914.
• Der troische Epenkreis (The troische epic spheres), 1919
• Griechische Lyrik (Greek lyric poetry), 1920.
• Marchen, sage, mythus (Fable, legend, myth), 1922.
• Die griechische Dichtung (Greek poetry), 1924.
• Tausend jahre altgriechischen lebens (Millennium of ancient Greek life), 1933.
• Ahnenbild und familiengeschichte bei Römern und Griechen (Ancestral imagery and family history among the Romans and Greeks), 1935.