My former academic supervisor, Alexander Garvie, who has died aged 90, was a scholar of ancient Greek tragedies with a particular focus on the playwright Aeschylus.
His first book, Aeschylus’ Supplices: Play and Trilogy (1969) is still, more than 50 years later, the definitive study of its topic. But his greatest achievements were two heavyweight commentaries on individual Aeschylean tragedies, the first on The Libation Bearers in 1986 and the second on The Persians in 2009. Classical scholars value a commentary if it either answers their questions or points to resources that will – and with Alex’s commentaries one was rarely disappointed in either direction.
Born in Edinburgh to Alexander, an office manager at McEwan’s brewery, and Edith Tyson, a secretary at the law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, Alex was educated at George Watson’s college. He gained a first-class degree in classics from the University of Edinburgh and after two years’ national service in Germany and Cyprus completed a second degree in classics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
He then began a PhD that was cut short in 1960, when he secured a position as assistant lecturer in Greek at the University of Glasgow, where he would remain until retiring as a professor in 1999.
Alex’s generous, affable and mischievously humorous nature contributed greatly to his success as a teacher. He always had time for his students. His dedication to teaching was matched by his passion for his subject, the clarity of his exposition and a masterful ability as a storyteller that left each class in rapt anticipation of the next instalment.
Always an enthusiastic traveller, Alex continued to lecture internationally until well into his 80s. In his retirement, the range of his travels expanded to encompass five continents, and he was able to fulfil a boyhood ambition to sail in Arctic and Antarctic waters.
Alex’s general air of contentment owed much to the happiness of his family life and to his Christian faith. He is survived by his wife, Jane (nee Johnstone), whom he married in 1966, their children, Margaret and David, and granddaughters Rebecca, Sarah, Catriona, and Isobel.
