Porson, Richard (1759–1808)

English classical scholar. He was professor of Greek at Cambridge from 1792. He edited four plays of the Greek dramatist Euripides (Hecuba, Orestes, Phoenissae, and Medea), but his most widely read work was his Letters to Archdeacon Travis on the disputed passage, 1 John 5:7, which is highly regarded for its acute reasoning.

He was born in East Ruston, Norfolk, and educated at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming fellow of his college 1782–91. He lost this position by refusing ordination, but he became professor of Greek and, in 1806, librarian to the London Institution.