Theodore Stephanides

Theodore Philip Stephanides (21 January 1896, Bombay, British Raj – 13 April 1983, Kilburn, London ) was a Greek-British poet, author, translator, doctor, naturalist and scientist. He is best remembered as the friend and mentor of the famous naturalist and author Gerald Durrell, having appeared in such books as My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, The Garden of the Gods and Fillets of Plaice by Gerald Durrell, Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell, or The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller.

A polymath, Stephanides was respected as a scientist and doctor, and acclaimed as a poet in the English language. He also translated a sizeable body of Greek poetry into English, notably a significant body of work by Greek poet Kostis Palamas and the Greek near-epic work Erotocritos.

Stephanides was a noted biologist who has four species named after him. Three of them, Cytherois stephanidesi, Thermocyclops stephanidesi and Schizopera stephanidesi, are microscopic water organisms discovered by Stephanides in 1938, and the fourth is Arctodiaptomus stephanidesi, a crustacean (copepod), described as Diaptomus stephanidesi by Otto Pesta in 1935.

Stephanides wrote A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain Other Regions of Greece (1948), a definitive biological treatise on the freshwater life in Corfu, which is still cited today. His autobiographical account of the Battle of Crete, Climax in Crete (1946), and his half-fictional account of Corfu and the Ionian Islands, Island Trails (1973), were widely read in the past, but are now out of print.

Childhood in Bombay and Corfu


Theodore Philip Stephanides was born in Bombay, present-day India, to Philip (Philippos) Stephanides, a native of Thessaly, Greece, and Caterina Ralli, born and educated in London. His father worked for the international company of Ralli Brothers, whose family was originally from Chios, Greece, and married the boss’s daughter. Theodore spent his early years in Bombay, and accordingly, his native language was English, which he spoke with a clear British accent. When his father retired in 1907, they moved to Corfu, where the Rallis family had an estate. It was only then that he began to learn Greek, at the age of eleven.

World War I and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)


During the First World War, which began when Stephanides was eighteen years of age, he served as a gunner in the Greek army on the Macedonian front, following which he saw service in the disastrous Anatolian campaign of 1919–1922.

Subsequently, Stephanides wrote an account of his participation, in 1917 –1918 (at the age of twenty-one to twenty-two), in Greek artillery brigades in the Macedonian campaign. He deposited a copy of the unpublished typescript in the Imperial War Museum in London in the 1970s. First started in the 1920s, completed in 1931, revised in the 1960s, and entitled Macedonian Medley, it was based on a diary that he kept on a daily basis during his two periods of duty on the Macedonian front (June 1916 to February 1918, and August to October 1918).

Stephanides served for eighteen months in a sector of the Macedonian front where no major battles took place over this time. This was the area to the south of Ghevgheli (in Bulgarian hands) and close to the towns of Kilkis and Isvor (in Allied territory) where the front lines scarcely shifted at all in this period. Stephanides moved about a lot within the sector, since much of his work involved laying telephone and power lines between positions, and, speaking English and French (in addition to Greek), he was also often sent to liaise with nearby British and French units.

In 1921–1922, Stephanides was detained and court-martialed for "insulting" King Constantine I of Greece. It was caused by his political views and his frustration with the Greek military authorities.

Plans exist to publish Macedonian Medley.

Although Stephanides' wartime experiences were not very successful, the accounts of his service are typical not only of his own wry humour in reporting them, but also of the way in which his acquaintances relished the bizarre situations in which he found himself. Thus, Alan G. Thomas, a close friend of both Stephanides and Lawrence Durrell, the editor of the latter's book Spirit of Place, mentions the following amusing incident which occurred during the war:

"From time to time Theodore reminisces about his days as a gunner. No man, it seems, could be commissioned as an artillery officer unless he had directed the fire of a gun at least once. At that time the allied armies were cooped up within a narrow territory, each unit almost on top of another. Theodore was given the relative data the night before the test, and, determined to succeed, worked out the bearings over and over again with his habitual scientific accuracy. The great moment came, the gun fired, and the projectile landed upon a tent, belonging to the medical corps, in which a surgical operation was in progress. Absolutely certain that his calculations were correct, Theodore insisted that they be investigated; he was proved right, the data being based on true north, while the gun had been 'laid' by magnetic north. 'I am probably the only doctor,' Theodore is accustomed to recall with a smile, 'who has dropped a shell into an operating theatre.'"

Stephanides' experience in the Anatolian campaign was no less undistinguished. Gerald Durrell reports the following story as narrated by Stephanides himself. His commanding officer gave him the task of leading the entry into Smyrna on a white horse. This is what followed:

"As I was riding along at the head of the column, an old woman darted out of a side street and started to hurl eau-de-Cologne about. The horse did not mind that, but most unfortunately a small quantity of the scent must have splashed into his eye. Well, he was quite used to parades and so forth, and cheering crowds and things, but he was not used to having his eye squirted full of eau-de-Cologne. He became... er... most upset about it and was acting more like a circus horse than a charger. I only managed to stay on because my feet had become wedged in the stirrups. The column had to break ranks to try to calm him down, but he was so upset that eventually the commander decided it would be unwise to let him take part in the rest of the triumphal entry. So while the column marched through the main streets with bands playing and people cheering and so forth, I was forced to slink through the back streets on my white horse, both of us, to add insult to injury, by now smelling very strongly of eau-de-Cologne."

1920s: translation of poetry, study of medicine in Paris
In the 1920s, Stephanides began his work as a translator of Greek poetry into English. In 1925 and 1926, he published two volumes of Greek poems belonging to Kostis Palamas and other modern Greek poets. These translations were coauthored with George Katsimbalis (also known as Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales), the man portrayed (along with Stephanides himself and Lawrence Durrell) in Henry Miller's novel The Colossus of Maroussi. They met during World War I and would become lifelong friends and collaborators.

During 1922–1930, Stephanides studied medicine in Paris (specialization of radiology), where one of his professors was Marie Curie. In Paris, he also discovered and developed his passion for astronomy, which remained his chief interest right up to his death, a fact reflected in many of his poems. He was encouraged in this pursuit by one of the leading French astronomers, Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), who wanted to make Theodore his chief pupil and heir.

1930s: return to Corfu, meeting the Durrell family
In the 1930s, Stephanides practiced in Corfu as a radiologist and married Mary Alexander (a granddaughter of a former British consul in Corfu), with whom he had one daughter, Alexia Stephanides-Mercouri (1931–2018). . She was a close friend of Gerry Durrell as a child in Corfu. She was married to Spyros Mercouris, brother of Greek actress Melina Mercouri.

In the 1930s, Stephanides also developed his skills as a freshwater biologist and as a microscope expert. During 1938–1939, he conducted significant work for the anti-malaria campaign in Salonica and Cyprus, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, returning occasionally to Corfu. At this stage Stephanides had already written his scientific magnum opus, a treatise on the freshwater biology of Corfu, commissioned in 1936 by the Greek government, which was eventually published in 1948, and had been credited with the discovery of three microscopic water organisms, Cytherois stephanidesi, Thermocyclops stephanidesi and Schizopera stephanidesi. As is evident from his memoirs of Corfu, Stephanides was also an astronomer, and is the only person to have named after him not only three of nature's smallest water creatures but also a crater on the moon ("Römer A" is unofficially named ‘Stephanides crater’).

Stephanides started Corfu field work in 1933, based on directives from the Corfiot health authorities to prepare a report on the principal localities where anti-malarial measures would be necessary. In 1935, he was introduced to the Durrell family by their common friend George Wilkinson. Gerald and Lawrence Durrell would remain his lifelong friends. He was a meticulous proof-reader for Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and Lawrence Durrell's The Greek Islands.



In March 1973, in the introduction to Stephanides' book Island Trails, Gerald Durrell recorded:

"I have known Theodore Stephanides since I was the tender age of ten, on the enchanted island of Corfu. He strolled into my life, tweed-suited, trilby-hatted, his walking stick with its tiny net on the end, his bag of test tubes and bottles slung on his hip, his beard twinkling in the sun; a sort of walking hirsute encyclopaedia. The effect of Theodore's erudition on a budding naturalist of ten was enormous. To me, just starting to explore and learn about the world I lived in, to have Theodore as guide, philosopher and friend was one of the most important things that have happened to me in my life. Not many young naturalists have the privilege of having their footsteps guided by a sort of omnipotent, benign and humorous Greek god. So closely did Theodore resemble my heroes of that period (the great naturalists like [Charles] Darwin, [Alfred Russel] Wallace, [Jean-Henri] Fabre, Gilbert White) that it was as though he had stepped straight out of the pages of their books. Theodore had and has all the best qualities of the Victorian naturalists: insatiable interest in the world he inhabits, and that ability to illuminate any topic with his own observations and thoughts. This, coupled with a puckish sense of humour, a prodigious memory and an ability to pack forty-eight hours into twenty-four, makes up a very extraordinary man. Theodore's wide interests are, I think, summed up by the fact that – in this day and age – he is a man who has a microscopic water crustacean named after him as well as a crater on the moon."

In My Family and Other Animals, Gerald wrote of their first meeting with Stephanides as follows:

"He had a straight, well-shaped nose; a humorous mouth lurking in the ash-blond beard; straight, rather bushy eyebrows under which his eyes, keen but with a twinkle in them and laughter-wrinkles at the corners, surveyed the world."

In Prospero's Cell, Lawrence Durrell gave the following description of Stephanides:

"For Theodore's portrait: fine head and golden beard: very Edwardian face – and perfect manners of Edwardian professor. Probably reincarnation of comic professor invented by Edward Lear during his stay in Corcyra [Corfu]. Tremendous shyness and diffidence. Incredibly erudite in everything concerning the island. Firm Venezelist [supporter of Eleftherios Venizelos], and possessor of the dryest and most fastidious style of exposition ever seen. Thumbnail portrait of bearded man in boots and cape, with massive bug-hunting apparatus on his back stalking across country to a delectable pond where his microscopic world of algae and diatoms (the only real world for him) lies waiting to be explored. Theodore is always being arrested as a foreign agent because of the golden beard, strong English accent in Greek, and mysterious array of vessels and swabs and tubes dangling about his person."

When Henry Miller met Stephanides in 1939, he thought:

"Theodore is the most learned man I have ever met, and a saint to boot."

Introducing Stephanides' "A Synoptic History of Corfu", John Forte referred to him as "an integral part and parcel of the island of Corfu", adding that Stephanides "could in fact be described as a Corfiot institution".

In June 1940, Stephanides left for Cyprus to join the Royal Army Medical Corps of the British Army.

Although Stephanides had left Corfu at the outbreak of the Second World War, returning only infrequently, the island had been an inspiration to the young Stephanides, as it was in turn to the young Gerald Durrell (they were of very similar ages when they made their "landfall" here), and this is clear in the many references to the island in Stephanides' poems, and, of course, explicit in his memoir of Lawrence Durrell at Kalami and Palaeocastritsa (Corfu Memoirs, published in Autumn Gleanings).

World War II, memoir Climax in Crete
During World War II, due to his dual Greek and British nationality, Stephanides served as a medical officer (lieutenant) in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Greece, Crete, Sicily and the Sahara. In May 1941, Stephanides was in Crete with the Allied troops when the Germans suddenly attacked the island by air. After several days of heavy bombings and machine-gunning by the Stukas, the Allies started retreating across the island, from Souda to Sfakia, to be evacuated by sea. Theodore had to walk about sixty kilometers in boots several sizes too large, which caused him great pain and badly chafed his feet. During the last stage of their march, he and another medical officer took charge of a group of about one hundred walking wounded, and they had to walk in open under the protection of the Red Cross flag. Eventually, they succeeded to reach the embarkation beach and were evacuated by H.M.A.S. Perth to Alexandria.

In 1946, Stephanides published Climax in Crete, a vivid eyewitness account of the Battle of Crete. Lawrence Durrell wrote the foreword to it, where he remarked:

"This sober and factual account of war experience in Greece and Crete can claim none of the journalistic virtues of immediate topicality, sensationalism, or inaccuracy. It was not written for publication, and it is completely free from literary inflation of any kind. But for clearness, accuracy, and unselfconsciousness it is quite fit to rank beside the compilations of any modern Purchas. ... In the solid virtue of observed detail it evokes the atmosphere of Greece and Crete during the German attack with a fidelity I have not seen elsewhere equalled; and to those who were there it will no doubt come as a refreshment after the scrappy sensational prose works of the professional journalists. Certainly as a record of an epoch-making campaign it must outlive, by its very humility and simplicity and probity, more pretentious books."

Lawrence's brother, Gerald Durrell, wrote on Climax in Crete as follows:

"One of the best war books written and now [in 1973], alas, out of print. Retreating across Crete with the Allied Army in World War Two, Theodore, the most unwarlike of men, was bombed and machine-gunned with the rest by the Germans. Yet who but Theodore would relate how, when the Stukas dived and machine-gunned the road, he flung himself face downwards in a ditch and was ‘interested to note’ two species of mosquito larvae he had not ‘previously encountered’? Who but Theodore would observe that the exhausted troops, sleeping under the olive trees, would all cease snoring without waking, as soon as they heard the drone of an aeroplane, and would recommence snoring as the sound died away?"

Alan G. Thomas wrote:

"Considering that his book Climax in Crete is one of the best individual accounts of a campaign written from the human point of view, it is to be hoped that one day he will publish his experiences in the first war."

Climax in Crete was quoted extensively by English military historian Antony Beevor in his book Crete: The Battle and the Resistance (1991).

Stephanides' parents and numerous friends died in Corfu as a consequence of German strafing and bombing. Stephanides' wife Mary and daughter Alexia, who were living in London, were sent to live with the Durrells in Bournemouth during the London Blitz of 1940–1941.

Stephanides' experiences in the Western Desert are described in his two memoirs, Western Desert Scramble and Western Desert and Beyond, which are kept, along with Macedonian Medley; 1917–1918, in the Imperial War Museum in London. Neither of these three memoirs have been published yet.

Postwar period: moving to London
Stephanides rejoined his family in London after World War II, working as an Assistant Radiologist at St. Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth district from 1945 until his retirement in 1961. The publication of Climax in Crete in 1946 was followed by two noted scientific works: The Microscope and the Practical Principles of Observation (1947), a detailed guide to microscope operation and use, and the seminal A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain Other Regions of Greece (1948).

In the epilogue to Island Trails, Stephanides describes how his books, scientific collections and most of his notes were destroyed during World War II in air attacks on Corfu town. However, A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain Other Regions of Greece was saved by a happy chance and was published in 1948 by the Hellenic Institute of Freshwater Biology. Stephanides adds humorously:

"I have never heard of it becoming a best seller in spite of the fact that it contains, among other good things, a suggestive account of the sexual aberrations of the water-flea Cyclops bicuspidatus Claus var. lubbocki Brady."

In 2012, Peter G. Sutton, a British biologist and science teacher, highly praised A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain Other Regions of Greece:

"It is no surprise that the studies of this remarkable man [Stephanides] made their way into The Bulletin of Entomological Research ... and I have been astonished by the fact that so many pathways of knowledge, from the completion of a modern checklist for the Odonata, to the investigation of water beetles, and even the study of the freshwater crab, Potamon fluviatile, must all proceed through his original work on the freshwater biology of the island, or risk error. ... The work of Theodore Stephanides therefore laid the foundation for future naturalists to study the aquatic fauna of Corfu, and my own work on the island, as well as the work of others, has exemplified the importance of using his study as a first point of reference. On at least two occasions, for example, literature has been put forward describing new records for the island, only to find that Stephanides had previously described the species of interest in his work. One of the problems that undoubtedly led to this state of affairs (other than an assumption that it must surely be outdated) is the rarity of the 1948 publication, which now, apparently, resides in only seven academic institutions worldwide."



Stephanides continued to write and undertake research, appearing with Gerald Durrell in the BBC documentary on Corfu, The Garden of the Gods (1967). He wrote on this as follows:

"Since the Second World War I have only revisited Corfu for a few months during the summer season. The last time was in 1967, when I helped Gerald Durrell and Christopher Parsons to complete the B.B.C. television travelogue Corfu, Garden of the Gods."

Stephanides also worked on a proposed but unrealised collaboration with Lawrence Durrell on the history of the Karaghiozis shadow theater, which they had first encountered in Corfu in the 1930s. Stephanides describes Karaghiozis in Corfu Memoirs (chapter [9], "Lawrence Durrell and the Greek Shadow Play") and, more extensively, in Island Trails (chapter 3, "Phaeacia Again"). Lawrence Durrell also devoted a chapter to Karaghiozis in his book Prospero's Cell (chapter IV, "Karaghiosis: The Laic Hero").

Stephanides gained much praise and good standing as a poet after the back-to-back publication of his poetry collections The Golden Face (1965) and The Cities of the Mind (1969). He also went on to publish the personal collection of poems Worlds in a Crucible (1973). In addition, he continued translating the poetry of Kostis Palamas in collaboration with George Katsimbalis. Katsimbalis himself said that his own contribution was unnecessary, since Stephanides had sufficient command of both Greek and English, but Theodore seems to have felt a need for a second opinion from someone steeped in Greek literature, and his volumes, whether or not Katsimbalis contributed much to the translations, appeared under both their names.

Other widely praised translation by Stephanides, that of the national Greek poem Erotocritos, was published posthumously in 1984. The volume was dedicated to Lawrence and Gerald Durrell.

Marios-Byron Raizis (1931–2017), a renowned Greek-American Byronist and Romanticist, greatly praised Stephanides' talent as a poet and translator, stating:

"Had Theodore Stephanides been less Greek at heart, and had he anglicised his father's surname as Stephenson or Stevens, I believe that his fame as an English poet and translator would have been part of the English literary culture we all love, study, and celebrate today."

In 1973, Stephanides published Island Trails, a half-fictional account of Corfu and the Ionian Islands, basically a collection of Greek folklore collected by him over the years. It was prefaced by Gerald Durrell and has since become a bibliographical rarity.



On 15 February 1983, Stephanides appeared as a "very special surprise guest" in the UK TV programme This is Your Life (aired on 23 February 1983) with Gerald Durrell as the "subject". Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell's official biographer, writes on this:

"There was even a film clip of Theodore Stephanides, who was apparently too unwell to attend the show. Or so it seemed. Gerald was thunderstruck when suddenly the real Theo stepped gingerly on to the set – frail and elderly, but as impeccably turned-out and as sharp-witted as ever, and beaming hugely. This was the reunion to end all reunions. Master and pupil embraced as only two old friends whose friendship went back nearly half a century could, knowing that it might be for the last time – as indeed it was. Then Gerald seized Theo's hand and led him forward towards the camera, raised the old man's hand and lifted it high above his head in a gesture of salutation, triumph and love."

Theodore Stephanides died peacefully in his sleep on 13 April 1983 in the Kilburn district of London. Lawrence Durrell dedicated The Greek Islands (1978) and Gerald Durrell Birds, Beasts and Relatives (1969) and The Amateur Naturalist (1982) to Stephanides during his lifetime, the latter reading:

"This book is for Theo (Dr Theodore Stephanides), my mentor and friend, without whose guidance I would have achieved nothing."

On 25 May 2011, a plaque in honor of Stephanides was unveiled in Corfu town on the building where he had his laboratory and consulting rooms in the 1930s (22 Mantzarou Street). The text is in Greek and English, the English text reading:

"Theodore Stephanides, 1896–1983, doctor, scientist, writer, mentor of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell, practised here."

Selected bibliography

 * Poems (original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation to English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales (George Katsimbalis)) (Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1925)
 * Modern Greek Poems (selection and translation from Greek into English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (1926)
 * Climax in Crete (an account of the Battle of Crete) (Faber and Faber, 1946)
 * The Microscope and the Practical Principles of Observation (Faber and Faber, 1947)
 * A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain Other Regions of Greece, Practika of the Hellenic Hydrobiological Institute, No. 2 (2), pp. 11–263 (1948)
 * "The influence of the antimosquito fish, Gambusia affinis, on the natural fauna of a Corfu lakelet" (technical article), Practika of the Hellenic Hydrobiological Institute, No. 9, pp. 3–6 (1964)
 * The Golden Face (collection of poems) (Fortune Press, London, 1965)
 * Cities of the Mind (collection of poems) (Fortune Press, London, 1969)
 * Three Poems (original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation into English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (self-published, 1969)
 * Worlds in a Crucible (collection of poems) (Mitre Press, 1973)
 * Island Trails (semi-fictional account of Corfu and other Ionian Islands) (London: Macdonald, 1973)
 * The Twelve Words of the Gipsy (original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation into English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (Oasis Books, London, 1974)
 * A Hundred Voices (original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation to English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (self-published, 1976)
 * Karaghiozis and the Enchanted Tree: A Modern Greek Shadow-Play Comedy (Greek Gazette, 1979)
 * The King's Flute (original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation to English, co-author Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (The Kostis Palamas Institute, 1982)
 * Erotocritos (original work by Vitsentzos Kornaros, translated from Greek to English) (Papazissis, 1984)
 * Kostis Palamas: A Portrait and an Appreciation. Including Iambs and Anapaests and Ascraeus (partly original work by Kostis Palamas in Greek, translation into English, co-authors Theophanis G. Stavrou, Constantine A. Trypanis, Georgios Konstantinou Katsimpales) (Nostos Books, 1985)
 * Autumn Gleanings: Corfu Memoirs and Poems (original texts apparently written in the 1970s; edited by Richard Pine, Lindsay Parker, James Gifford and Anthony Hirst) (Durrell School of Corfu, International Lawrence Durrell Society, 2011)
 * Sweet-Voiced Sappho: Some of the Extant Poems of Sappho of Lesbos and Other Ancient Greek Poems (translated by Theodore Stephanides, edited by Anthony Hirst) (Colenso Books, London, 2015)

Portrayals

 * In the BBC 10-episode TV series My Family and Other Animals (1987), Theodore Stephanides is played by Christopher Godwin.
 * In the BBC 90-minute film My Family and Other Animals (2005), Theodore Stephanides is played by Chris Langham.
 * In the ITV (Television Network) drama series The Durrells (2016–2019), Theodore Stephanides is played by Yorgos Karamihos.