THE Greek scholar David Bain spent most of his academic career in the University of Manchester, from his appointment as a lecturer in 1971 to his early retirement as Professor of Greek in 2001. He did not always find the university or its ways congenial, but he served it with distinction, inspiring affection in generations of students for the excellence of his Greek teaching, his wide learning and his acerbic sense of humour.

Bain was a proud product of the Scottish education system. He was born in Carlisle in 1945 but grew up in Melrose in the Borders and attended Galashiels Academy. From there he went to St Andrews in 1963. He gained a first in Greek and Latin, then moved to St John’s College, Oxford, as a postgraduate in 1967, where he completed his doctorate under the supervision of the Regius Professor of Greek, Hugh (later Sir Hugh) Lloyd-Jones. His early work was on drama, both tragedy and comedy. His book Actors and Audience, a Study of Asides and Related Conventions in Greek Drama (1977) has become accepted as one of the classic studies of the “grammar” of ancient dramatic technique. His next book, Masters, Servants and Order in Greek Tragedy (1981), while more limited in scope, succeeded in illuminating some controversial passages through the study of dramatic conventions. His commentary on the Samia of Menander (1983) was the first in English on the play.

Bain had recall of all the lines in Greek drama and in Latin comedy, and an extensive knowledge of theatre history in general. Long after he had moved on to other topics he displayed an effortless ability to get to the essentials of books about Greek drama in the magisterial reviews he continued to write. These, often masterpieces of prose which drew for parallels on wide reading outside classical scholarship, are witty as well as learned, and not infrequently devastating.

From the mid-1980s Bain developed very different interests. First he turned to the language in which sexual acts and parts of the body and other indecencies were described in Greek. He was completing a book on Greek aischrologia (foul or ill-sounding language) at the time of his death, but had already published widely on the subject in articles, perhaps most notably Apotropaic Farting (1986) and Six Greek Verbs of Sexual Congress (1991).

He later became interested in magic, and produced definitive work on the text and interpretation of the Cyranides, a late Greek compilation on the magical properties of stones, plants and animals. He also left a commentary in handwritten form on Lucian’s Alexander. His published papers number about 150.

Bain was urbane and cultured, and possessed a prodigious general knowledge. He had taken part in Top of the Form, University Challenge and with great success in the radio programme Treble Chance. He was also, however, given to a Victor Meldrew-like irascibility. He had no time for some modern developments in classical studies, such as the teaching of literature in translation, the vogue for inattention to linguistic detail and the obsession with literary theory. If forced to contemplate such matters he would be rendered incoherent with annoyance.

A bon vivant, Bain was a familiar figure in parts of Manchester, where he had a wide circle of friends. He carried his laptop about in a Sainsbury’s bag, and would often produce it in public places such as restaurants and get down to work, making notes from a book or perusing an examination script, such was his devotion to scholarship.

Professor David Bain, classicist, was born on July 3, 1945. He died of a heart attack on November 30, 2004, aged 59.