Patricia Elizabeth Easterling, FBA (née Fairfax;[1] born 11 March 1934) is an English classical scholar, recognised as a particular expert on the work of Sophocles.
[4] Born in Blackburn, Easterling attended Witton Park High School (originally called Blackburn High School for Girls) before graduating with first class honours and distinction in Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1955.
In 1994, she returned to Cambridge and Newnham as the 36th Regius Professor of Greek, the first (and so far only) woman to hold that post since its endowment by Henry VIII.
[13] On 22 January 2000, Easterling received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University, Sweden.
[16] Easterling works mainly on Greek literature, particularly tragedy; she also studies the survival and reception of ancient drama.