Spyridon Stais ( el, Σπυρίδων Στάης, 1859–1932) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

politician from the island of

Kythera Kythira (, ; el, Κύθηρα, , also transliterated as Cythera, Kythera and Kithira) is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is traditionally listed as one of the seven main Ionian Islands, ...

. He studied physics and mathematics and served as a teacher in gymnasia (secondary schools) of Greece. He became active in politics in 1892, joining first the party of

Charilaos Trikoupis Charilaos Trikoupis ( el, Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης; 11 July 1832 – 30 March 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895. He is best remembered for introducing the vote of c ...

and later (after Trikoupis’ death) the Modernist Party of

Georgios Theotokis Georgios Theotokis ( el, Γεώργιος Θεοτόκης, 1844 in Corfu – 12 January 1916 in Athens) was a Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece, serving the post four times. He represented the Modernist Party or ''Neoteristikon Ko ...

. He served as a member of parliament, as Minister for Education under prime minister Theotokis (in 1900 and again in 1903), as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

(1921–1922) under

Dimitrios Gounaris Dimitrios Gounaris (; 5 January 1867 – 28 November 1922) was a Greek politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 25 February to 10 August 1915 and 26 March 1921 to 3 May 1922. Leader of the People's Party (Greece), People's P ...

and finally as general governor of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

(1922) under

Petros Protopapadakis Petros Protopapadakis ( el, Πέτρος Πρωτοπαπαδάκης; 1854–1922) was a Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece in May–September 1922. Life and work Born in 1854 in Apeiranthos, Naxos, Protopapadakis studied mathemati ...

. In some recent publications dealing with the

Antikythera Mechanism The Antikythera mechanism ( ) is an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomy, astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be ...

, the name of Spyridon Stais has been confused with that of the archaeologist

Valerios Stais Valerios Stais ( el, Βαλέριος Στάης; b. Kythira 1857 – d. Athens 1923) was a Greek archaeologist. He initially studied medicine but later switched to archaeology obtaining his Doctorate from the University of Halle (Saale) in 1885 ...

, the discoverer of that archaeological find.D. J. de Solla Price, "An ancient Greek computer", ''Scientific American'' June 1959: 60-67.

References

1859 births 1932 deaths Greek educators People from Kythira Ministers of the Interior of Greece {{Greece-politician-stub