Theodore Philip Stephanides (Greek: Θεόδωρος Φίλιππος Στεφανίδης; 21 January 1896 – 13 April 1983) was a Greek-British doctor and polymath, best remembered as the friend and mentor of Gerald Durrell.

[2] The incident was caused by Stephanides' resentment with the Greek military authorities and his political views:[6] he was a strong supporter of Eleftherios Venizelos,[7] the prime-minister of Greece in 1910–1920, who was in conflict with Constantine I.

[1] Stephanides' professional interest in astronomy dates back to as early as the summer of 1914, when he observed the Sun for two months and made 24 drawings of various groups of sunspots.

[1] These translations were coauthored with George Katsimbalis, the man portrayed in Henry Miller's novel The Colossus of Maroussi along with Stephanides himself and Lawrence Durrell.

[1][2][15] Alexia was a close friend of Gerald Durrell in Corfu, and Stephanides hoped that the two would marry one day, but the outbreak of World War II ruined these plans.

[1][21] As Gerald Durrell would later recall, Stephanides produced an enormous effect upon him, "a budding naturalist of ten" at that time, helping him develop his exploration skills.

"Not many young naturalists have the privilege of having their footsteps guided by a sort of omnipotent, benign and humorous Greek god," wrote Durrell.

Fragments from them were published by the Deus Loci journal in the 1970s and 1980s, while the full version appeared in 2011 under the title Corfu Memoirs in the collection of Stephanides' works Autumn Gleanings.

[1][20] Earlier, in 1933, Stephanides drew up a report on anti-malaria measures to be performed in Corfu, based on directives from the Corfiot health authorities.

[3] As Stephanides came back to Corfu in 1939, for a brief period, he made an acquaintance with Henry Miller, who later remembered: "Theodore is the most learned man I have ever met, and a saint to boot.

[28] As the Allies were retreating across the island to be evacuated by sea, Stephanides walked in boots several sizes too large, which made him limp for some time after that.

Lawrence Durrell wrote a foreword to it, where he remarked: "For clearness, accuracy, and unselfconsciousness [this account] is quite fit to rank beside the compilations of any modern Purchas...

It evokes the atmosphere of Greece and Crete during the German attack with a fidelity I have not seen elsewhere equalled; and to those who were there it will no doubt come as a refreshment after the scrappy sensational prose works of the professional journalists.

[34] Stephanides' parents were killed in Corfu during the 1943 German bombing of the island, while his wife Mary and daughter Alexia had moved to England in 1939 and stayed safe until the end of the war, living with the Durrells in Bournemouth for some time.

[3] In 2012, Peter G. Sutton, a British biologist and science teacher, would highly praise A Survey, saying, among other things, that it "laid the foundation for future naturalists to study the aquatic fauna of Corfu".

Sutton was "astonished by the fact that so many pathways of knowledge... must all proceed through [Stephanides'] original work on the freshwater biology of the island, or risk error".

He also mentioned that while Stephanides' books, scientific collections and most of his notes were destroyed during World War II in air attacks on Corfu town, A Survey was saved by good fortune.

[20] In July 1967, Stephanides came to Corfu, helping Gerald Durrell and Christopher Parsons complete the BBC travel documentary The Garden of the Gods.

[42] Marios-Byron Raizis, a Greek-American Byronist and Romanticist, greatly praised Stephanides' talent as a poet and translator, stating: "Had Theodore Stephanides been less Greek at heart, and had he anglicised his father's surname as Stephenson or Stevens, I believe that his fame as an English poet and translator would have been part of the English literary culture we all love, study, and celebrate today.