Spyridon Stais was a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 politician from the island of Kythera.

He studied physics and mathematics and served as a teacher in gymnasia

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 (secondary schools) of Greece. He became active in politics in 1892, joining first the party of Charilaos Trikoupis

Charilaos Trikoupis

Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895....

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

Georgios Theotokis

Georgios Theotokis was a Greek politician and four times Prime Minister of Greece. He represented the New Party or Neoteristikon Komma .- Biography :...

. 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

Minister for the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation (Greece)

The Ministry of the Interior is a government department of Greece. Occasionally the office has been combined with that of the Ministry for Public Order...

 (1921–1922) under Dimitrios Gounaris

Dimitrios Gounaris

Dimitrios Gounaris was the Prime Minister of Greece from March 10, 1915 to August 23, 1915 and April 8, 1921 to May 16, 1922...

 and finally as general governor of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

 (1922) under Petros Protopapadakis

Petros Protopapadakis

-Life and work:Born in 1854 in Apeiranthos, Naxos, Protopapadakis studied mathematics and engineering in Paris but was keenly interested in politics. He was a professor at the Scholi Evelpidon, the military academy of Greece....

.

In some recent publications dealing with the Antikythera Mechanism

Antikythera mechanism

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100...

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

Valerios Stais

Valerios Stais was a Greek archaeologist. He was born in Kythera. He studied medicine and later archaeology. He became the director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in 1887 and held that post until his death. During that period he organized or participated in excavations in...

, the discoverer of that archaeological find.