Aristides Phoutrides

Aristides Evangelus Phoutrides (also Foutridis) was an Ottoman Greek and later Greek-American classical philologist and Neo-Hellenist born on 17 April 1887, on the Greek island of Ikaria, then under the Ottoman Empire.^[1] He taught at Harvard, Yale and the University of Athens.

Life and career

Aristides Phoutrides was born in Evdilos on the Aegean island of Ikaria to Evangelos Foutridis, a captain, and Aspasia (née Poulianos).^[2][3] Due to the scarcity of work on the island during his childhood, Phoutrides' father moved the family to the Khedivate of Egypt (modern-day Egypt).^[4] In 1905 Phoutrides migrated to the United States, where he studied at Northfield Mount Hermon School and Harvard University.^[5] In 1911, he founded the first Greek American students association, named Helicon (or Helikon).^[6][7] He graduated with a PhD in classics in 1915 and became the youngest professor at Harvard.^[8] After World War I, Phoutrides began teaching at Yale University and then the University of Athens in 1919.^[9] After Venizelos fell, he returned to Yale in 1920, where he was assistant professor until his death.^[10] He was a recipient of the Bowdoin Prize.^[11] Much of Phoutrides' career focused on analysing and translating the works of his contemporary and friend, the Greek poet Kostis Palamas, as is reflected by his publication record. Phoutrides also co-published with American mountaineer Francis P. Farquhar and fellow Greek-American writer Demetra Kenneth Brown.

In 1921 he married Margaret Gertrude Garrison in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[12] Phoutrides died suddenly from a heart attack aged 36 in 1923.^[13] Two of his brothers, including the Rev. Stephanos Phoutrides, were Greek Orthodox priests in the United States.^[14] His nephew and namesake Aristides Stephanos Phoutrides (b. 1925) was a chemical engineer.^[15]

Published works

• Notes on the chorus of Aeschylus (1913) [thesis].
• The Chorus of Euripides (1915) [thesis].
• Mt. Parnassus (1915).
• With the gods on Mount Olympus (1915), with Francis P. Farquhar.
• Hesiodic reminiscences in the "Ascraean" of Kostes Palamas (1917).
• Kostes Palamas, a modern Greek world-poet (1917).
• Lights at dawn: poems (1917).
• Kostes Palamas: Life Immovable (1919).
• Modern Greek stories (1920), with Demetra Kenneth Brown (a.k.a., Demetra Vaka).
• A Hundred Voices (1921).
• Royal Blossom, or, Trisevyene (1923).
• Palamas and Hesiod (1929). (posthumously)
• A man's death (1934). (posthumously)

References

1. Cambridge Tribune, Volume XLVI, Number 27, 1. September 1923, S. 7. See:
2. Nicholas D. Diamantides, ‘Aristides E. Phoutrides: Harvard’s Schizocardiac Scholar’, in Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, University of Minnesota, 1992.
3. Taken from 'Aristides Evangelus Phoutrides in United States World War I Draft Registrations, 1917-1918':
4. Chrysopoulos, ‘The Poor Greek Boy Who Became the Youngest Harvard Professor’:
5. Diamantides, ‘Aristides E. Phoutrides: Harvard’s Schizocardiac Scholar’, 1992; Philip Chrysopoulos, ‘The Poor Greek Boy Who Became the Youngest Harvard Professor’, Greek Reporter, 10 February 2018:
6. Chrysopoulos, ‘The Poor Greek Boy Who Became the Youngest Harvard Professor’:
7. Peter C. Moskos, Greek Americans: Struggle and Success, Taylor & Francis, 2017, p. 58
8. Chrysopoulos, ‘The Poor Greek Boy Who Became the Youngest Harvard Professor’:
9. Diamantides, ‘Aristides E. Phoutrides: Harvard’s Schizocardiac Scholar’, 1992.
10. Greek Minister to U. S. Will Address Meeting in Memory of Dr. A. E. Phoutrides '11, Former Instructor at University, 6 October 1923:
11. Greek Minister to U. S. Will Address Meeting in Memory of Dr. A. E. Phoutrides '11, Former Instructor at University, 6 October 1923:
12. Massachusetts, Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
13. Diamantides, ‘Aristides E. Phoutrides: Harvard’s Schizocardiac Scholar’, 1992.
14. Chrysopoulos, ‘The Poor Greek Boy Who Became the Youngest Harvard Professor’:
15. Aristides Stephanos Phoutrides obituary: