A. F. Garvie

Alexander Femister Garvie (1934–2024) was a Scottish Classicist and Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow. Garvie's career at Glasgow spanned 39 years across the Departments of Greek and Classics, rising from Assistant Lecturer in 1960 to Professor of Classics in 1998. He is best known for his commentaries on Aeschylus, and especially for his seminal commentary on Aeschylus' Choephori.

Early life Garvie was born in Edinburgh in 1934 to Alexander Garvie, an office manager at McEwan's brewery, and Edith Tyson, a secretary at the law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn. He received his education at George Watson's College. It was at George Watson's that Garvie was first taught Greek when the Classics Master, John 'Iky' Penman, announced that selected pupils would be giving up science to take up Greek.

Career Garvie graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1955 with an MA (First Class) in Classics. Historically, it was typical for Scottish graduates to take a second first degree at either Oxford or Cambridge, and Garvie was ultimately awarded firsts in both parts of the Classical Tripos.

Garvie died on 17 September 2024 at the age of 90.

Research fellowships and accolades Garvie was Gillespie Professor at the College of Wooster, Ohio, and a Visiting Professor at Ohio State University, and the University of Guelph, Ontario. He served for six years as editor of the Classical Review, and seventeen years as secretary, and then as chairman, of the Classical Association Journals Board.

A Festschrift was published in his honour in 2006, entitled Dionysalexandros: Essays on Aeschylus and his fellow tragedians in honour of Alexander F. Garvie, and featured contributions from Oliver Taplin, Jean Bollack, Martin Hose, Martin West, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, P. E. Easterling, Douglas Cairns, and Elizabeth Craik.

Scholarship Garvie's work focussed on the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, on whom he published highly regarded commentaries of his Persae, Supplices, and the definitive commentary of his Choephori, once described as an 'indispensable vademecum for any serious student of Aeschylus'. Garvie was an accomplished violinist, playing in the University of Glasgow orchestra for more than 40 years. He also enjoyed climbing.

Selected works Garvie, A. F. (1969), Aeschylus’ Supplices: Play and trilogy, Cambridge University Press, viii + 279. Garvie, A. F. (1970), ‘The opening of the Choephori’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 17, 79–91. Garvie, A. F. (1986), Aeschylus, Choephori: With introduction and commentary, Oxford, Clarendon Press, lx + 394. Garvie, A. F. (1994), Homer, Odyssey Books VI–VIII, edited with Introduction and Commentary, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, viii + 368. Garvie, A. F. (1998), Sophocles, Ajax: Edited with introduction, translation and commentary, Warminster, Aris & Phillips, vi + 266. Garvie, A. F. (2009), Aeschylus: Persae: with Introduction and Commentary, Oxford, OUP.