Born to the tailor Saverio Di Benedetto and his wife Maria Gaetana (née Santoro) he grew up in Saracena (Calabria) and acquired a sound knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek at the Liceo Classico in Castrovillari.
[2] Having received a scholarship from the Scuola Normale Superiore, he went on to study from 1952 to 1958 in Pisa and Oxford (Corpus Christi College).
[3] From 1969 onwards until his retirement in 2006 he taught Greek literature at the University of Pisa, and, from 1971 until 1993, Classical Philology at the Scuola Normale.
He published numerous monographs as well as bilingual editions, intended both for a larger public and experts.
Even the selection of his minor works, titled Il richiamo del testo and published by Riccardo Di Donato in 2007, takes up four weighty volumes, containing some of his most important insights, such as his proof that Aristotle, when quoting his sources, had been far more reliable than had hitherto been assumed.