By Pano Yannakogeorgos, Ph.D.
Dr. Christos C Evangeliou, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the philosophy and literature of Hellenic antiquity, passed away on Tuesday 4 January 2022 after a multi-year struggle with Parkinson’s. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Karen M. Weidenheim, sister Margarita and extended family. Born and raised in Kyrtoni, Greece, Dr. Evangeliou received a Bachelor’s degree in Classics and Philosophy from the University of Athens and his Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Completing his Ph.D., Dr. Evangeliou moved to Baltimore, MD where he rose through the academic ranks to become Professor of Philosophy at Towson University. He taught, among other subjects, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Plato, and Medieval & Hellenistic Philosophy. The Evangelious called Baltimore, New York City, and Hellas home. Dr. Evangeliou was also the American Representative of the International Center of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research, based in Athens, Greece.
Widely published, his seminal works were Aristotle’s Theory of Categories and Porphyry and Hellenic Philosophy: It’s Origin and Character. He embodied the practice of Hellenic philosophy, asking challenging questions of our understanding of the natural world and humanity’s technological and political ordering of it. We can remember him as a person that was guided by the Hellenic philosophical tradition in his thinking and writing. Following the tradition of the ancient Hellenic philosophers, he dedicated the final years of his life to writing poetry which are published in the poetic series, The Hellenic Muses. The poetry cultivates an appreciation of the “perennial creative power of Hellenic philosophic thought and language.” Originally written in Modern Greek, his mastery of the poetic arts is captured the versing, cadence, and metering of ancient poetic styles and exemplified his linguistic and artistic capability providing insights across a wide spectrum of topics including philosophy, art, mythology, politics, and love. Following the tradition of those philosophers engaged in a battle of wits, logic, and irony with sophistry, Dr. Evangeliou’s lifetime achievements affirm his κλέος (kleos – an individual’s immortalized glory gained on the basis of intellectual achievements and sacrifice). The achievement of kleos drove ancient Hellenic citizens to achieve heroic physical and intellectual achievements that, like the writing on a marble slab, enshrined a diachronic legacy of Hellenic thought. Dr. Evangeliou’s philosophy and poetry will continue to inspire and influence generations for millenia to come.
The span of Professor Evangeliou’s influence and legacy is best captured in the excerpt copied below from the edited volume celebrating his lifetime achievements: The Poetry in Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Christos C. Evangeliou. The volume celebrates Professor Evangeliou’s contributions to philosophy and poetry as well as the inspiration his thinking has had on scholars of Hellenic philosophy.
“One gift that I have,” Christos C. Evangeliou is fond of saying, “is the ability to inspire people.” The contributors to this volume are a testament to this gift, and they have come together to honor Evangeliou who, for forty years, has been a prominent voice for the compelling intellectual and moral virtues of Hellenic philosophy— and an equally devastating critic of anything he takes to be the work of historical or ideological distortion. As a tireless advocate for the traditions of Hellenic argument, he has produced work of unusual breadth, beginning with his dissertation on the dialectical interchanges between Plotinus and Porphyry over the value of Aristotle’s Categories. This became not only his first book, but also a standard point of reference in the field, and it appeared at a time when scholars working on Neoplatonism were rare, austere individuals who tended to operate in their own separate world. Evangeliou was one of the key figures who brought these discussions into the mainstream of ancient philosophy, and he did so not only through a series of important papers, but also by his indefatigable advocacy in conferences around the world.
In six books and a continual stream of rich papers over the decades, Evangeliou has served as a pure and unwavering voice for a particular ideal of philosophy, and as colleagues, students, and friends from around the world can attest, this ideal has shaped all his intellectual and personal interactions as well. Those of us who have attended one of his famous conferences in Greece can attest to seeing him dance with his ever-present sailor’s cap in Zorba-like ecstasy, then returning to a table laden with food and wine and immediately raising questions about everything from contemporary politics to a difficult emendation in a Byzantine text—and somehow finding important connections between them.
Although he wrote the quintessential study of the philosopher’s ascent in Plato’s Symposium, he himself has always managed to also remain a lover of sights and sounds and individuals. This, no doubt, helps to explain his many published volumes of poetry, a small portion of which is included at the end of this volume in Greek and English. In the same way that this selection of poetry can hardly give a sense of the whole, this volume could not begin to accommodate all of his scholarly friends and admirers around the globe. But we few who were able to contribute hope at least to have spoken to a not unrepresentative range of Evangeliou’s many interests. Whatever our contributions may lack when subjected to his famously critical eye, we hope that they at least give some sense of our admiration, friendship, and gratitude for his continued inspiration.
Although he wrote the quintessential study of the philosopher’s ascent in Plato’s Symposium, he himself has always managed to also remain a lover of sights and sounds and individuals. This, no doubt, helps to explain his many published volumes of poetry, a small portion of which is included at the end of this volume in Greek and English. In the same way that this selection of poetry can hardly give a sense of the whole, this volume could not begin to accommodate all of his scholarly friends and admirers around the globe. But we few who were able to contribute hope at least to have spoken to a not unrepresentative range of Evangeliou’s many interests. Whatever our contributions may lack when subjected to his famously critical eye, we hope that they at least give some sense of our admiration, friendship, and gratitude for his continued inspiration.
This excerpt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
