Background
Onians was born in Liverpool on 11 January 1899. His father was Richard Henry Onians.
Onians was born in Liverpool on 11 January 1899. His father was Richard Henry Onians.
University of Cambridge.
His major publication was his monumental and eccentric work, The: About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge Uttar Pradesh, 1951). He served in the 4th South Lancashire and the Royal Air Force in 1917-1918, and then gained a first class degree in classics at Liverpool University. Onians was a lecturer at the University of Liverpool 1925-1933, and professor of Classics at the University of Wales 1933-1935.
In 1936 he became Hildred Carlile Professor of Latin in the University of London until his retirement in 1966, and was thereafter an emeritus professor
He negotiated an extension to this time limit, and although a 1935 draft with the title Origins of Greek & Roman Thought, mainly concerning the body, the mind, the soul and fate is held by the British Library, his book was not published until 1951, as The: About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge University Press). An expanded version was published in 1954, and it was reprinted in a paperback edition from Cambridge University Press in 1988 and again in 2011 ().
His obituary in The Times in 1986 said "Although the book, which covers a vast field, does not always carry conviction, it was one of the most important of its day in the field of classical studies and remains a valuable tool.", and commented that he had published little else although he had worked on additions to the book