Early Years
Born as Maximine Julia Portas in 1905, Savitri Devi was the daughter of Maxim Portas, a French citizen of Greek and Lombardian Italian ancestry and an Englishwoman, Julia Portas (née Nash). Maximine Portas was born two and a half months premature, weighing only 930 grams (2.05 lbs), and was not at first expected to live. She formed her political views early. From childhood and throughout her life, she was a passionate advocate for animal rights, which was related to her views of Jews as the practitioners of kosher slaughter. Her earliest political affiliations were with Greek nationalism.
Portas studied philosophy and chemistry, earning two Masters Degrees and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Lyon. She next traveled to Greece, and surveyed the legendary ruins. Here, she became familiar with Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of swastikas in Anatolia. Her conclusion was that Ancient Greeks were Aryan in origin, thus finding the reason for the influence of their culture upon later civilizations. Her first two books were her doctoral dissertations: Essai-critique sur Théophile Kaïris (Critical Essay on Theophilius Kaïris) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935) and La simplicité mathématique (Mathematical Simplicity) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935).
She was the tutor of the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997), as he revealed in a radio interview by Katherine von Bulow (France Culture - 20/4/96).
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