There are people who leave behind buildings and people who leave behind questions. Athanasios “Sakis” Zantidis belonged to the latter category, and perhaps that is why his absence is felt in a way that is difficult to measure. A proud Pontian from Kato Poroia, Serres , he passed away in Melbourne on August 25, 2026 , with his family by his side.
The Greek community of Melbourne bids farewell to a man whose contribution was never determined by the desire for prominence, but by a deep and abiding belief. That education , culture , dialogue and knowledge can make man and society better. His life was, in essence, a ceaseless quest. He wanted to know, to read, to discuss, to question and above all to understand. For Sakis, knowledge was not something that one acquires and keeps. It was an ongoing process, a path without a final destination.
He was born into a large Pontic family of six children and showed his love for books from an early age. Those who knew him remember a child with his head almost always bent over a page. At 22, he made the decision that determined the rest. He traveled to Australia to study, without knowing English . It took courage, perseverance and a remarkable belief in himself. He got married, started a family, worked and at the same time did not stop chasing the dream of education.
The effort paid off. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at La Trobe University , majoring in languages, English and Greek. For him, however, language was never just a tool for communication. It was a gateway to history, literature, philosophy and culture. It was the way in which people exchange not just words, but ideas. This education also became the basis of his professional life. Until his retirement, he worked as a freelance collaborator, interpreter and translator . The young man who arrived in Australia without knowing the language ended up making language a profession.
He was deeply fascinated by ancient Greek philosophy , poetry and theatre. He admired Socrates , Plato and Aristotle , but also Aristophanes . Among his favourite plays was “Lysistrata” , for its anti-war and subversive dimension and for the way in which it questioned traditional notions of power and the role of women. It was precisely this questioning attitude that fascinated him in the ancients.
He often wondered whether the technological progress of the modern world was accompanied by a corresponding progress in human thought. Having information, he believed, was not enough. What matters is the ability to think critically . He believed in dialogue and not in disagreement as a means of domination. He liked to listen to different opinions, even when he disagreed with them, believing that respect for different opinions sharpens thinking and ultimately brings people closer together.
This philosophy also defined his contribution to the community. In the mid-1980s and 1990s, the Greek community in Melbourne was changing. The post-war generation now had families, businesses and organizations, their children were growing up, while families were increasingly moving outside the traditional centers of Fitzroy , Richmond and Brunswick . Sakis realized that the new generation needed access to the Greek language and culture close to where they lived. He thus created an independent Greek school with classes on weekends, in a community space in Deer Park .
The response from families was great and enrollment increased rapidly. As needs grew, he recognized that continuity required a greater structure and collaborated with Omiros College , so that the two schools could join forces. Omiros, which had been founded in 1984, subsequently evolved into one of the important independent bodies of Greek-language education in the region. He himself did not leave after its founding. He remained connected to the operation of the school, creating opportunities for students to experience Greek culture through poetry, dance and other activities. He believed that even children as young as five and six years old can gain a meaningful connection with their heritage. His belief was simple and radical at the same time. Education is freedom .
His contribution did not stop in the classroom. In the mid-1990s, he founded the free Greek-language magazine “Omorfi Ilikia” in Melbourne, at a time when the community was facing intense questions about identity, generational succession and its place in multicultural Australia. The surviving issues, from December 1995 to August 1996, reveal a publication with an impressive range. Greek history and art, philosophy and literature, immigration and identity, family, motherhood, intercultural life, Australian law and social issues.
The magazine did not treat Greek culture as something that simply had to be preserved through nostalgia . For Sakis, cultural heritage could only stay alive if we understood it, studied it, questioned it and let it converse with the modern world. In its pages, ancient and Byzantine Greece coexisted with the problems of the modern Greek family, texts on Orthodoxy and Byzantine iconography alongside articles on the Australian Family Court, separation, the position of women and the experience of those who chose to return to Greece.
The timeless question of identity had a special place. What does it mean to belong to Australia and at the same time feel connected to Greece? The “Two Homelands” was not just a title. It was a question that concerned and continues to concern many generations of the diaspora. Even technology and artificial intelligence found a place in the pages of the magazine, always with the same background. If technological progress can be considered real progress when it is not accompanied by a corresponding development of human thought, understanding and humanity.
Here, perhaps, lies the most characteristic element of his thinking. He did not believe that civilization survives by telling young people what to believe. He believed that you must first give them the tools to understand why .
To his family and close friends, of course, Sakis was not just the intellectual, the educator or the translator. He was a husband, father, brother, uncle, friend and mentor . He was the man who could turn a simple conversation into a philosophical dialogue, talk for hours about a painting and move from Aristotle to music, from politics to the human body, from ancient Greece to the last song he heard on the radio. He was also someone who could stand on the top of a mountain and contemplate how small man is in the face of the grandeur of nature, and a little later stand by the sea and feel completely at home.
His greatest legacy is not found in an institution, a magazine, or a professional success. It is found in the people he encouraged to learn, the children he helped to discover their Greek heritage, the conversations he provoked, and the ideas he left behind.
Perhaps the simplest way to describe the philosophy that defined his life is found in the words attributed to Socrates in Plato’s “Apology,” that the unexamined life is not worth living. Sakis Zantidis examined life. He questioned it, challenged it, admired it, and tried to understand it. He did not seek easy answers. He sought understanding .
