Stylianos Alexiou

Stylianos Alexiou (1921-2013) was born in Heraklion, Crete, the son of poet Lefteris Alexiou, grandson of scholar and publisher Stylianos Alexiou, and nephew of Elli Alexiou and Galatea Kazantzakis. In 1946, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Athens. Between 1951-52, he attended postgraduate courses at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris on a scholarship. In 1959, he was awarded a doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Athens. In 1961, he attended courses in Heidelberg on a Humboldt Foundation scholarship. He was a distinguished archaeologist, philologist, and scholar of classical, Byzantine, and modern Greek literature, and an emeritus professor of late Byzantine, vernacular, and Cretan literature at the University of Crete, where he taught from 1977 to 1991. Previously, he was a member of the Archaeological Service from 1947, initially appointed in Rhodes, until 1977, when he resigned to take up teaching duties at the University of Crete. As an archaeologist, he served as the Curator of Antiquities of Western Crete (1961-1962), General Curator of Antiquities of Crete, and director of the Heraklion Archaeological Museum (1962-1977). He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens, a member of the Archaeological Society, the German Institute, and an honorary doctor of the universities of Padova and Cyprus. During his excavations, he discovered the Late Minoan tombs of Limenas Knossos and the Early Minoan tholos tombs of Lebena (Lentas). At the Heraklion Museum, he created a new wing and the Yamalakis Collection Hall. He also founded the archaeological museums of Chania and Agios Nikolaos. He published numerous works in Greek and international journals. He conducted philological studies and editions of works ("Erotokritos," "Apokopos," "Voskopoúla," "Digenis Akritas," "Solomos"), as well as studies related to the society, life, and culture of Crete in the 15th-17th centuries. Other works of his concern historical linguistics and the etymology of words in the Cretan dialect and modern Greek. In 1993, he was awarded the Special State Prize for Literature for his entire body of work, and in 2003, the Golden Cross of the Order of Honour. He was an honorary member of the Society of Authors. His last work was the philological edition of "Kritikos" by Dionysios Solomos, published by Kichli (November 2013). He passed away, mentally vigorous, in Heraklion, on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, at the age of 92.