Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, professor emeritus of Greek and comparative literature at UC Berkeley, died at his home in Oakland on Feb. 6. He was 86.

Professor Rosenmeyer died unexpectedly, according to UC Berkeley classics Professor Tony Long, a close friend. He had been experiencing heart trouble and was due to receive medical treatment, Long said.

Professor Rosenmeyer became a Cal faculty member in 1966, and early in his career played a central role in creating the Department of Comparative Literature.

In his scholarship, his hallmarks were his fluency in comparing literary sources from many European traditions and his sensitivity to the nuances of language, Long said.

Professor Rosenmeyer, an expert on classical Greek literature, published numerous articles on Plato early in career. His books include "The Masks of Tragedy" (1963), "The Green Cabinet: Theocritus and the European Pastoral Tradition" (1969) and "The Art of Aeschylus (1982). Turning to Latin literature later in his career, he wrote "Senecan Drama and Stoic Cosmology" (1989).

Professor Rosenmeyer lectured widely in this country and abroad and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, servicing as president of the society in 1989.

He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and fled to England in the late 1930s. He was detained as a German citizen and sent to an internment camp in Canada.

After World War II, he completed an undergraduate degree at McMaster University near Toronto. He earned his doctorate at Harvard University in 1950 and taught at Smith College, the University of Iowa and the University of Washington before coming to Berkeley.

He retired in 1990 and held several visiting positions elsewhere. At Berkeley, he kept up a brisk pace of reading and seeing friends until the end of his life.

"At the moment of his death, he had 30 books out from the University of California library," Long said. "That's so typical."

Professor Rosenmeyer's wife of 56 years, Lilo, died last year. He is survived by two daughters -- Patricia Rosenmeyer of Madison, Wis., and Katherine Fabiunan of Fresno -- and three grandchildren.