Ilias Iliou

Ilias Iliou (Greek: Ηλίας Ηλιού, also transliterated as Ēlías Ēlioú; May 1904 – January 25, 1985) was a Greek lawyer and politician, member of the Greek Parliament and leader of the United Democratic Left (EDA). He was also a distinguished writer and jurist.

Iliou was born in 1904 in Kastro (now renamed Myrina), the main town of Lemnos. The island was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912. His grandfather Ilias was a shoemaker originally from Macedonia, his father Philippos (d. 1927) a rich merchant who lost his fortune in 1929, and his mother Efthalia (d. 1916) a schoolteacher, rare for a woman at the time. He was the eldest of three brothers and one sister. The others were Yannis (b. 1906, died soon after), another Yannis (b. 1908), Konstantinos (b. 1910) and Eleni (b. 1912).

A brilliant pupil, he finished the gymnasium at the age of 16, studied law in the University of Athens, and graduated in 1924.

He started a legal practice in Mytilene with George Zoanos which continued in Athens after 1935. In addition to his legal work he also wrote poetry, was a translator from classical Greek and French of literary and legal books, contributing many articles to specialist law journals. He also wrote articles for literary magazines such as Noumas (Νουμάς), Philiki Etairia (Φιλική Εταιρεία), Ellinika Grammata (Ελληνικά Γράμματα) and Neoellinika Grammata (Νεοελληνικά Γράμματα), which broke new ground as they were written in the Demotic Greek (spoken, popular form of Greek) which was only officially recognized in 1975 instead of the usual more classical katharevousa.

During the Metaxas dictatorship (1936–41) he contributed two books in the series “Library of Writers and Poets of Ancient Greece” published by Zacharopoulos. After the war he wrote several more books and contributed many articles to journals and newspapers. In 1922 he joined the Democratic Union of Alexandros Papanastasiou and stood as a candidate in the Parliamentary elections of 1932 and 1936, without success. He moved to Athens in 1935 and in 1942 he was called to the bar of the Areios Pagos.

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