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Thalia Pandiri Obituary
Northampton, MA - Thalia Pandiri, March 12, 1943-December 16, 2025
Thalia Alexandra Pandiri-friend, teacher, daughter, and mother-died on December 16, 2025. She was 82. Born in New York City to Greek immigrant parents and educated in both New York and Athens, she earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University and joined the Departments of Classics and Comparative Literature at Smith College, where she taught for fifty-six years. She was both brilliant and loving.
A scholar with a love of words and their histories, her career was marked by its range. Fluent in six modern languages and two ancient ones, she wrote about and translated works from ancient and modern Greek as well as from medieval Latin. For twenty-five years she served as editor of Metamorphoses, the Five College journal of translation, and in her teaching of Greek, Latin, and Comparative Literature she looked hard at uncomfortable topics, trying to understand, for instance, the many works from Euripides' play Medea 2,400 years ago to Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), in which mothers murder their children.
Thalia was generous to her students, colleagues, and friends and loved her children deeply. Students attest to the extraordinary care she gave both to their papers and to them. Sardonic when she saw incompetence or injustice, she was steadfast in defending those who needed help.
She loved books, travel, small but exceptional restaurants, the marvels of the natural world, and ordinary human beings. She was a powerful yet modest teacher and mentor.
Her last year was dogged by ill health and pain, which she bore stoically, supported by her love for her two children. She is survived by those children, Dimitri and Lydia Oram and by many relatives in Greece.
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Memories and Condolences
for Thalia Pandiri
danny jackson
January 26, 2026
My transactions with Thalia were only by numerous phone calls while she sent wonderful articles to a Prentice Hall anthology of Classics. She was always pleasant, chatting up our shared NYC background, punctual with flawless copy that never needed my editing. Her voice was warm, loving and deeply appreciated. She was an editor's dream. Requiescat in pace.
Stephanie Kraft
January 21, 2026
Thalia was a true scholar, a deep scholar, and a scholar with integrity. Institutions like Smith College are built on the work of such people. She insisted on high standards and profound attention to detail in the editing of METAMORPHOSES, The Five College Journal of Literary Translation, not sparing herself in maintaining those standards, but never without generosity and a sense of humor. She was a devoted mother and friend. She is irreplaceable.
Mary Blockley
January 11, 2026
I met Thalia Pandiri when I was briefly teaching as temporary faculty at Smith in the early eighties, and I learned this sad and unexpected news of her premature death just moments ago in the customs line at Toronto-Pearson, from a UMass English professor, as we were returning from the MLA meeting. She inspired me to take intensive Greek at UT after I got tenure there, and was a luminous presence in Northampton that I remember vividly forty years on. y deepest condolences to her much-loved Dimiti and Lydia Miranda.
Ginetta E.B. Candelario '90
January 6, 2026
I was so very sorry to hear of Thalia's passing; she was my very first professor and mentor when I arrived at Smith as a 17 year old student, and went on to be a role model, colleague, and friend when I returned as a faculty member a decade later. I always admired her honesty, courageousness, and steadfastness when it came to raising necessary alarms or taking an ethical stance as a faculty member, and she continues to inspire the same in others, including me. May she rest in power and eternal peace.
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Laura Blosser
January 5, 2026
I have such fond memories of Thalia and our time in together in Italy in 2002-2003. She initially came off as gruff but was such a softie. A wonderful person, through and through. I am so happy that our lives crossed in the way they did. She will be dearly missed!!
Catherine Castner
January 4, 2026
From Cathy Castner, '71-
Thalia Pandiri was a wonderful teacher of ancient Greek. Not only was she brilliant, but she had a way of supporting and encouraging her students with kindness. This combination of pedagogical attributes kept us going in a difficult subject matter, engaged, interested, and even enjoying beginning ancient Greek.
Jena
January 4, 2026
Thalia was my dear friend when I was a student at Smith and a helper at home when Dimitri and Lydia Miranda were little. I have so many happy memories of gathering around the dining room table, talking with Thalia and with, Lydia, her mom, with Bill, and pondering all sorts of philosophical questions with Dimitri. The whole family became very much a second family for me when I was an unformed undergrad, and we stayed in touch over the decades. Thalia's death is a heartbreak. Sending all my love xxoo, Jena
Monica Ginanneschi
January 3, 2026
Carissima Thalia o Mamma Greca come ti piaceva che io ti chiamassi...sono incredula, addolorata, infinitamente triste per il modo in cui te ne sei andata.
Non so come poterti ringraziare di tutto quello che hai fatto per me e di tutto quello che mi hai insegnato. Non dimenticherò mai tutti i momenti passati insieme e il tuo carattere che ho imparato ad apprezzare nei lunghi anni di lavoro insieme e di grande amicizia. Vola libera cara Thalia, e se vedi il nostro caro Alfi, divertitevi insieme...
Ciao Thalia cara, per sempre nel mio cuore...
Monica, la tua figlia Italica
Judith Hallett
January 3, 2026
An extraordinary member of our Classics community-and a priceless asset to Smith College!
Alessandra
January 3, 2026
Mia carissima Thalia,
amica e collega, donna di intelletto e di ironia,
che tristezza sapere che ci hai lasciato. Sono certa che sarai in un posto migliore. La tua siciliana ti manda un abbraccio in cielo, e uno ai tuoi figli - in italiano, che era la nostra lingua. Riposa in pace.
Alessandra Di Maio
R. Jordan Crouser
December 31, 2025
My dear friend and colleague, I will so miss our conversations. Thank you for your wisdom and your humor.
Steph Dinsae '19
December 28, 2025
My generous, dear professor and advisor! I'm devastated to know you've left us in this realm. I just brought you up so, so recently, so I'm shocked to hear this news. How lucky I am to have shared the gift of language with you. To learn from you, to cultivate a solid mentor-mentee relationship during my time at Smith. I could not be the Classicist I am without you. I'm so grateful to and for you. Thalia, I will continue to sing your praises. I'm wishing you so much rest and ease.
Suzanne (Burns) Mercury '86
December 23, 2025
I am utterly heartbroken by this news. I was only a nervous freshman when I studied Ancient Greek (Intensive! Yikes, what was I thinking?) with Thalia, but it remains one of the best classes I have ever taken in any institution, and the memory of studying with her has always been among my happiest from Smith. She was a truly amazing and erudite well of knowledge, humor, and fun. Her dedication to her students was phenomenal. How is it possible for her to not be with us anymore?
My deepest condolences and love to her family and to all in the community who loved her and were lucky enough to know her. She is going to be missed by many.
Gayle Pemberton
December 23, 2025
There have been many heartbreaking moments for me this year, but not one as awful as Thalia´s death. I only taught at Smith for a year - more than 50 years ago - but Thalia had a huge influence on my life. The memory of her quick wit, mordant humor, and flawless reading of people and situations have stayed with me always. Our encounters since those days were infrequent, but altogether wonderful. I still am in disbelief that she is gone.
To her family and to all who loved and admired her, I send my deepest condolences. I am so grateful to have known her. She was so fabulously brilliant.
Amanda (Griffin) Loud
December 23, 2025
Thalia taught me at Smith 1985-1989. I so respected her academic integrity, her love for the Classics, and her academic support. We continued to exchange Christmas cards for almost 40 years, hers always coming after mine on Orthodox Christmas. I often measure my pedagogy on her meter. I will truly miss Thalia, a professor who became my friend.
Daphne Hammond
December 23, 2025
Such a good friend and such a terrible loss for her family, friends and community. We shared so many wonderful memories over the years, it sometimes feels like it was just yesterday when we would sit in her office or living room, chatting about a million different things. Her depth of knowledge and her wicked sense of humor made her a remarkable conversationalist- as long as you weren´t on the receiving end of her razor sharp wit! I will miss her deeply .
L
December 23, 2025
Professor Pandiri was one of the most brilliant and memorable professors I´ve had the pleasure of learning from. She was so strong, intelligent, thoughtful, and generous, and had a truly powerful sense of humor and wit. I am deeply grateful that I had the opportunity to take in her guidance during my time at Smith, and I am devastated by the news of her passing. My deepest condolences to her loved ones, and may she rest in peace.
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