Stylianos Alexiou ( el, Στυλιανός Αλεξίου, 13 February 1921 – 12 November 2013) was an archaeologist,

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

and university professor.

Biography

Sylianos Alexiou was born in 1921 in

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Gree ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

. He came from a learned family: his father was Lefteris Alexiou (1890–1964), a writer and philologist and he had Elli Alexiou and Galatea Kazantzakis (the first wife of

Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis ( el, ; 2 March ( OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. Kazantzakis's n ...

) for his aunts. His grandfather was the homonymous Stylianos Alexiou, the scholarly publisher of newspapers in Heraklion. He studied at the School of Philosophy in the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

(1939–46), from which he took his doctorate in 1959. He received a scholarship from the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

and remained for the academic year 1951–52 at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, and from 1960 to 1961 he was at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

on scholarship from the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...

. In 1947 he worked as Prefect of Antiquities on Rhodes and in 1950 transferred to the

Heraklion Archaeological Museum The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts ...

. In 1960-61 he served as Ephor of Antiquities for Southern Crete, which has its seat in

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

, and in 1962 he took over direction of the

, until 1977 when he quit the General Ephorate of Antiquities. In 1973 and 1977 he had a place on the Archaeological Council of the

Hellenic Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture and Sports ( el, Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού) is the government department of Greece entrusted with preserving the country's cultural heritage, promoting the arts, and overseeing s ...

. In 1977 he began to teach at the Philosophical School of the

University of Crete The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion, and one of the country's most aca ...

and in 1982 he was elected as the first professor of Mediaeval & Modern Greek literature in that school. From 1963 to 1964 he was the international editor of ''Kritkon Khronikon'', a member of the editing committee of the

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

periodical ''Kadmos'' in London, and a member of such learned societies as the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...

, the

British School at Athens , image = Image-Bsa athens library.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_upright= , alt= , caption = The library of the BSA , latin_name= , motto= , founder = The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, called the foundation meeti ...

, the Archaeological Society, the ''Association International d' Etudes Byzantines'', the Society for Byzantine Studies, the Christian Archaeological Society, the

Hellenic Folklore Society Hellenic is a synonym for Greek. It means either: *of or pertaining to the Hellenic Republic (modern Greece) or Greek people ( Hellenes, el, Έλληνες) and culture *of or pertaining to ancient Greece, ancient Greek people, culture and civil ...

, the Society for Cretan Historical Studies, and finally, a ''

Commendatore Commendatore (singular), Commendatori (plural), is an Italian word originating from the latin phrase In commendam and meaning "Commander". It may refer to: Position, rank, title * Commander (order) ( it, Commendatore), the title of honour "Comma ...

'' of the Italian Republic. In 1981, he was honoured with the title of Corresponding Member of the

. In 1992 he was honored by the University of Padua for his contributions to Minoan archaeology and to Byzantine and Modern Greek philology. In 1993 the critical faculty of the National Literary Awards honoured him for all his inspired work with the Special National Literary Award for Literature (1993), while in November 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens.

Archaeological work

His principal archaeological works are the excavations of the chamber graves of Katsambas (the harbour of

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

) from 1951 to 1963 and the early Minoan tholos tombs of Levinos-Lenda in 1958–66, his re-organisation and expansion by one-third of the

, with the addition of new wings (five new rooms with about twenty new exhibits), the founding of the Museums of Chania (1962) and Agios Nikolaos (1969), the development of the theory of the coordinated and anactoric character of the Minoan emporium (1958), the identification of the fortifications of Minoan Crete, his research on

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, the study of Minoan sanitary cisterns (1972), and the location of Panormus-Apollonius and other cities of Greek Crete (1974). Finally, he attended to the special legislative designation of and protection of the Knossos area.

Linguistic work

He had discovered the earliest works of Cretan literature, back in 1952 in his study of the

Erotokritos ''Erotokritos'' ( el, Ἐρωτόκριτος) is a romance composed by Vikentios Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses, the last twelve of which refer to the poet himself. It is written in t ...

. His works on the subject number six books and thirty essays or contributed articles, with the most important being his linguistically restored edition of the Erotokritikos published in 1980. According to Nicholas Panayotakis "...constituted one of the leading achievements of Modern Greek philology, a real landmark and ''tour-de-force''..." Likewise, he produced the critical ''Voskopoula'', the ''Apokoopo'' which does not accept the didactic, moral and eschatalogical character human affairs that so many researchers since have presented and the Erofili. He published many revisions, new interpretations, and observations on editions of texts, old and new, of literary criticism and Cretan theatre.

Works

Books

Monographs

* el, Μινωικός πολιτισμός, Ηράκλειο,1964 inoan Civilization(English translation 1968, German 1976, French 1979) * el, Υστερομινωικοί τάφοι Λιμένος Κνωσού (Κατσαμπά), Βιβλιοθήκη της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας, Αθήνα, 1967 'The Late Minoan tombs of the Harbour of Knossos (Katsambas)''* el, Οδηγός Μουσείου Κρήτης, Ηράκλειο, 1953 'Directory of the Museum of Crete''* el, Από το ποιητικό έργο του Νίκου Καζαντζάκη, Ηράκλειο, 1977 'From the poetic work of Nikos Kazantzakis''* el, Ακριτικά.Το πρόβλημα της εγκυρότητας του κειμένου Ε.Χρονολόγηση-αποκατάσταση χωρίων ερμηνευτικά, Ηράκλειο 1979 Akritic_Lays:_The_Problem_of_the_validity_of_Text_Five,_Dating_&_reconstruction_of_the_villages_Hermeneutics.html" ;"title="Acritic_songs.html" ;"title="'The Acritic songs">Akritic Lays: The Problem of the validity of Text Five, Dating & reconstruction of the villages Hermeneutics">hermeneutically''] * el, Γλωσσικά μελετήματα, Αθήνα,1981 [''Linguistic Studies''] * el, Η Κρητική λογοτεχνία και η εποχή της. Μελέτη φιλολογική και ιστορική. Στιγμή, Athen 1985 'Cretan literature and its epoch. Philological and historical studies.''* el, Δημώδη βυζαντινά: μελέτες,εκδ. Στιγμή, Αθήνα, 1997 'Studies in the Byzantine Vernacular'', ''Stigmi'' editions, 1997* el, Κρητικά φιλολογικά: μελέτες, εκδ Στιγμή, Αθήνα, 1999 'Studies in Cretan Philology'', ''Stigmi'' editions, 1999

Anthologies

* el, Κρητική Ανθολογία, 1954 retan Anthology* el, Απόκοπος, Η Βοσκοπούλα (δεύτερη ενιαία εκλαϊκευμένη έκδοση), Ερμής,Αθήνα, 1971 pokopos & Vaskopoula: Second Unabridged Popular Edition

Translations

*Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616, el, Σονέτα,μετάφραση, Στιγμή, 1998 'Sonnets, a Translation'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 1998* el, Συλλογικό έργο, Το εντευκτήριον, Στιγμή, 2004 ollaborative work, ''The Chamber'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 2004(translations of works of

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

Owen Meredith Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 183124 November 1891) was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880duri ...

, Stephane Mallarme,

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary ...

Henri de Regnier Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Mon ...

Francis Jammes Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his po ...

W.B.Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish litera ...

and

T.S.Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Bi ...

into Greek) * el, Συλλογικό έργο, Κατάλογος 24, Στιγμή, 2009 ollaborative work, "Catalogue 24", ''Stigmi'' edition, 2009 (Contributor of a commentary on and translation of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

)

Critical editions

* el, Η Βοσκοπούλα, πιμενικό ειδύλλιο του 1600, Ηράκλειο, 1963 he_''Voskopoula'',_a_poetic_ he_''Voskopoula'',_a_poetic_idyll_of_1600">idyll.html"_;"title="he_''Voskopoula'',_a_poetic_idyll">he_''Voskopoula'',_a_poetic_idyll_of_1600*_el.html" ;"title="idyll_of_1600.html" ;"title="idyll.html" ;"title="he ''Voskopoula'', a poetic idyll">he ''Voskopoula'', a poetic idyll of 1600">idyll.html" ;"title="he ''Voskopoula'', a poetic idyll">he ''Voskopoula'', a poetic idyll of 1600* el">Βιτσέντζος Κορνάρος,Ερωτόκριτος, Ερμής, 1980 (ανατυπώσεις: 1984, 1994, 2000) [''Vitsentzos Kornaros,

''] * el, Βασίλειος Διγενής Ακρίτης και το άσμα του Αρμούρη. Κριτική έκδοση, εισαγωγή, σημειώσεις, γλωσσάριο. Ερμής, Athen 1985 'Basil_Digenes_Akrites_and_the_Song_of_Armouris.html" ;"title="Digenes_Akrites.html" ;"title="'Basil Digenes Akrites">'Basil Digenes Akrites and the Song of Armouris">Digenes_Akrites.html" ;"title="'Basil Digenes Akrites">'Basil Digenes Akrites and the Song of Armouris. Critical edition with introduction, notes, and glossary] * el, Διονύσιου Σολωμού, Ποίηματα και πεζά, εκδ.Στιγμή,Αθήνα, 1994 [ ''Dionysios Solomos, poems and prose'' ''Sigmi'' edition, 1994] * el, Διονύσιου Σολωμού, Στοχασμοί,μετάφραση, εκδ Στιγμή, Αθήνα, 1999 /nowiki>Dionysios_Solomos,_''Meditations'',_''Stigmi''_editions,_1999.html" ;"title="Dionysios_Solomos.html" ;"title="/nowiki> /nowiki>Dionysios_Solomos,_''Meditations'',_''Stigmi''_editions,_1999">Dionysios_Solomos.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Dionysios_Solomos">/nowiki>Dionysios_Solomos,_''Meditations'',_''Stigmi''_editions,_1999*_el.html" ;"title="Dionysios Solomos">/nowiki>Dionysios Solomos, ''Meditations'', ''Stigmi'' editions, 1999">Dionysios_Solomos.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Dionysios Solomos">/nowiki>Dionysios Solomos, ''Meditations'', ''Stigmi'' editions, 1999* el">Σολωμός, Διονύσιος, 1798-1857, Ο Κρητικός, εκδ.Κίχλη 2013 [ Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''The Cretan'', ''Kikhli'' edition, 2013] * el, Σολωμός, Διονύσιος, 1798-1857, Διάλογος,εκδ Στιγμή 2014 Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''Dialogue'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014] * el, Σολωμός, Διονύσιος, 1798-1857, Ο Κρητικός, εκδ.Στιγμή 2014 Dionysios_Solomos,_1798-1857,_''The_Cretan''_''Stigmi''_edition,_2014.html" ;"title="Dionysios_Solomos.html" ;"title="Dionysios Solomos">Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''The Cretan'' ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014">Dionysios_Solomos.html" ;"title="Dionysios Solomos">Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''The Cretan'' ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014* el, Σολωμός, Διονύσιος, 1798-1857, Ο Λάμπρος, εκδ.Στιγμή 2014 Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''Lambros'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014] * el, Σολωμός, Διονύσιος, 1798-1857, Οι ελεύθεροι πολιορκημένοι, εκδ.Στιγμή 2014 Dionysios_Solomos,_1798-1857,_''The_Free_Besieged'',_''Stigmi''_edition,_2014.html" ;"title="Dionysios Solomos">Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''The Free Besieged'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014">Dionysios Solomos">Dionysios Solomos, 1798-1857, ''The Free Besieged'', ''Stigmi'' edition, 2014

Articles

* el, Η Μινωϊκή θεά μεθ΄ υψωμένων χειρών, Κρητικά Χρονικά τομ.ΙΒ (1958), σσ. 179-299 [The Minoan Goddess with Upraised Hands, ''Kritika Chronia'', vol. XII, pp. 179-299] * el, Ανάκτορο και πόλις στη μινωική Κρήτη: μια νέα θεωρία για την κρητική κοινωνία, Εποχές, 9, (1964), σελ. 422-466["The palace and city in Minoan Crete: a new theory of Cretan community", ''Epoches, 9'', 1964, pp. 422–466]

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexiou, Stylianos Greek archaeologists Linguists from Greece Greek writers 1921 births 2013 deaths Corresponding Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Heidelberg University alumni Academic staff of the University of Crete People from Heraklion