Spyridon Stais (, 1859–1932) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

politician from the island of

Kythera Kythira ( ; ), also transliterated as Cythera, Kythera and Kithira, is an Greek islands, 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, altho ...

. 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 (; 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 confidence in the Greek constitution, p ...

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

Georgios Theotokis Georgios Theotokis (; 8 February 1844 – 12 January 1916) was a Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece, serving the post four times. He represented the Modernist Party or Neoteristikon Komma (NK). Biography He was the third child of C ...

. He served as a member of parliament, as

Minister for Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

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. The leader of the People's Party, he was the ma ...

and finally as general governor of

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

(1922) under

Petros Protopapadakis Petros Protopapadakis (; 31 December 1854 – 28 November 1922) was a politician and Prime Minister of Greece from May to September 1922. Life and work Born in 1860 in Apeiranthos, Naxos, Protopapadakis studied mathematics and engineering in P ...

. In 1902 Stais first noticed the

Antikythera mechanism The Antikythera mechanism ( , ) is an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System). It is the oldest known example of an Analog computer, analogue computer. It could be used to predict astronomy, astronomical ...

among other unidentified scraps of bronze, during a visit to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.https://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/attachments/Jones.pdf

References

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