† Pieter Jacobus Conradie: 7 February 1931 – 21 November 2021
South African Classics is the poorer with the passing, in his ninety-first year, of Piet Conradie, professor emeritus of Greek at Stellenbosch, doyen of scholarly reception studies of Greek drama in South Africa, but also the kindly and beloved “Piet Grieks” to generations of Dutch Reformed theological students at Stellenbosch.
After one year at the University of Cape Town, Conradie transferred to Stellenbosch, achieving a BA degree cum laude (Greek and Latin, with minors in History and Afrikaans) in 1950, and continuing immediately with his graduate studies (1951), while also embarking on a first stint of teaching. Four years in the Netherlands (1954-58) culminated in a doctorate at the University of Utrecht on the literary portrayal of Herakles in Greek drama, published in 1958.
Piet Conradie had long been interested in the use of myth in Greek literature, and he was further inspired by the prescribed preliminary reading of all the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles and also a number of Euripides’s plays set by his supervisor at Utrecht, and this became his life-long passion. Soon after his permanent appointment as lecturer at Stellenbosch, Piet collaborated with Professor Frans Smuts and various other colleagues to institute a three-year course in Classical Studies (at Stellenbosch termed “Classical Culture”) to complement students’ linguistic studies. Piet’s three drama modules, featuring not only Greek drama in translation, but also its tremendous Nachleben, kept students fascinated from first to third year. Many of South Africa’s most well-known actors were as students among these proselytes.
Students were introduced to the dramatic works of modern European authors, ranging from Anouilh to Brecht, Corneille, Eliot and Racine and further, but also South African authors who wrote in Afrikaans, such as Brink, van Wyk Louw and Wassenaar. These authors also featured in the numerous academic article Conradie published, not only in Classics journals, but also in other literary journals and theatre journals. Later he started working on other Africans such as Soyinka and Rotimi. Seven books came from his pen and he also served as editor of Akroterion from 1987 until 1995.
Yet the Greek language was also not neglected in Piet’s teaching portfolio, and on occasion he also “helped out” in the then still separate Latin Department at Stellenbosch. There, too, Piet favoured the reading of Greek drama with senior students. I remember reading Euripides’ Ion in Greek with him when I later took up Greek studies, and also, previously, being introduced by him to the Roman historiographer Tacitus in my Latin Honours year. Piet was always impeccably prepared, and demanded the same from his students, but, as he himself explained, did not really expect them always to comply. He was promoted to associate professor in 1972, and to full professor and Chair of Greek at Stellenbosch in 1977, where he retired in 1995.
This kindly attitude combined with a dry sense of humour, was carried over into his relationship with colleagues, into extensive committee work at the University (such as secretary of the local University Teachers’ Association), in the Stellenbosch chapter of the South African Academy for Science and Arts, serving in wider contexts the South African Classical Association in various roles (chairing CASA, 1975-76 and being elected as Honorary President of CASA in 2003 as one of six such) and within the South African literary establishment, where he served for some time on the board of the South African National Library, as treasurer of the Afrikaans Writers’ Circle.
Piet was a dedicated mountaineer in his youth. As student he was active in the Stellenbosch University “Mountain and Touring Club” and later he joined the Mountain Club of South Africa, climbing until about 1976.
Piet married Marietjie Hugo of Porterville and the couple had two sons. Marietjie predeceased Piet by some five years. He stayed on in his home in a retirement complex. but about three years ago he was obliged to move to a frail care establishment as failing eyesight and increasingly poor health made independent living impossible for him. Ultimately an inability to read even the largest print type was a sad fact borne cheerfully, however, by the ever-optimistic Piet Conradie, even when Covid 19 struck and an extreme lockdown prevented his nearest and dearest from visiting him. His demise indicates, not the end of an era in reception studies in South Africa, but a torch being passed on to his many academic progeny within three spheres: the Dutch Reformed Church, dramatic and academic circles.
Jo-Marie Claassen