Memories of E. R. Dodds

This concluding chapter presents the accounts of E.R. Dodds’s students. Ruth Padel was Dodds’s last Doctor of Philosophy student. At Oxford, Dodds read papers she wrote towards her thesis and made imaginative connective suggestions. Moreover, they talked about writing and poetry, discussing how Dodds wrote The Greeks and the Irrational. After the death of Dodds’s wife, Padel took upon herself the task of looking after him in his old age. Padel then encouraged her lifelong friend, Oswyn Murray, to reach out to Dodds, thinking he would appreciate being asked to meet present-day undergraduates. Thus, Murray had the honour of dining with Dodds and W.H. Auden. Meanwhile, Helen Ganly had the opportunity to draw Dodds in person. During their conversations, he spoke about his love of gardening.