Hugh Lee

A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, Hugh Lee (hlee6@umd.edu) has taught at Indiana University (Bloomington), Miami University of Ohio, Howard University, and the University of Maryland (College Park), where he is Professor of Classics.

He has held year-long research fellowships from the Fullbright Foundation (Rome, 1969), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1979-80), and the American Council of Learned Societies (Cologne, 1984-5).

Among his publications are articles on Pindar and Vergil, but his current research interests center on ancient Greek and Roman athletics. His monograph, The Program and Schedule of the Ancient Olympic Games, (Weidmann: Hildesheim, 2001) is published in the Nikephoros Beihefte series, Band 6.

His most recent publications are:

"Ligorio's Contribution to Mercuriale's De Arte Gymnastica," in E. Ziegler ed., Sport and Physical Education in the Middle Ages (Trafford Publishing: Victoria, BC, Canada,  2006)  pp. 130-137.

 "The caestus in the 16th Century: Raphael, Brant, Mercuriale, and Ligorio," in Nikephoros. Zeitschrift für Sport und Kultur im Altertum, 18 (2006) pp. 207-217 and plates 7, 8.

 “The Halma:  A Standing or a Running Jump”, in Onward to the Olympics. Historical Perspectives on the Olympic Games, ed. G. Schaus and S. Wenn, (Wilfrid Laurier University Press: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2007) pp. 153-165. 

Professor Lee is currently working on the revival of the study of Greek athletics in the modern period, with an emphasis on Hieronymus Mercurialis’ De Arte Gymnastica (first edition 1569) and Gilbert West’s A Dissertation on the Olympick Games (1749). 

He teaches both Greek and Latin at all levels and has taught the following courses in translation: Greek and Roman Mythology, Advanced Mythology, Greek Tragedy, Greek and Roman Athletics, Greek Literature, Literature of the Ancient World, and Greek Civilization.