STEPHEN G. DAITZ

A workshop in Greece was dedicated to the memory of Professor Stephen Daitz, founder of the Society of the Oral Reading of Greek and Latin Literature, who had taught the oral recitation of classical literature at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where Philippe Brunet, Sophia Georgacopoulou and Eleni Karamalengou had the good fortune to attend his classes in the early 90s. On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the original and experiential...

I warmly recall my few meetings with Professor Daitz, once teaching a class with him in NYC. I also gratefully remember his support and encouragement of me and of my dactylic hexameter translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. His brilliant renditions of the Greek classics helped inspire my podcasts of my versions of those two epics, for I endorse his conviction that these poems, like Shakespeare´s plays, assume oral performance and require it for full understanding. I can only hope that his...

I'm still reading Vergil even though I'm retired as a teacher. Every day when I recite Latin aloud I think of the skills Stephen taught me in the 1980s. Don Buck.

I am so sorry to hear of Professor Daitz's passing after so many years. I was his student from 1998 to 1999. He taught me Latin as an emeritus professor and I had the privilege of receiving one-on-one instruction from him. I was reviewing my Latin recently and I was trying to remember whatever became of this amazing teacher but I could not remember his name and I felt bad. Tonight, his name popped out of nowhere and I decided to google him. He was the most passionate language professor I...

RIP, Prof. Daitz.