Wed 12 Jul 2006
Roger Milliex
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Roger Milliex Passed Away
07 Jul 2006
Great academic, intellectual and philhellene Rose Milliex, aged 93, passed away on Friday morning in Athens, where he lived most of his life.
His name is interwoven with Greece and its people. He loved the Greek nation and admired the resistance against the nazis, while he also fought along with the Greeks. He supported the rights of the Cypriot people, and he gave lectures and published many articles to promote Greece and bring the intellectual community of France and Greece together, especially during tough times. He married the Greek author Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex in 1939, with whom he had two children.
He was born in 1913 in Athens and he studied Philology at the University of Aix in Provence and in Sorbonne. He was appointed Professor of French at the French Institute of Athens in 1936. In 1941, he was appointed Director of Studies at the same Institute, while, during the years of the German occupation, he participated in the resistance. In 1945, he assisted leftist intellectuals by getting them out of Greece with scholarships from France, saving them from the firing squad. In that year, the ship Mataroa, registered under Portugal, transferred dozens of bursars to France, and many of them became leading figures of the academic world, including Svoronos, Makris, Kastoriadis, Zenetos, Xenakis, Kranakis and Axelos.
In 1945, he was succeeded at the French Institute by Octave Merlier, while Milliex remained his close associate until 1959. That year, he was appointed cultural attache in Nicosia, where he stayed for twelve years. He founded the French Cultural Centre of Nicosia and Alliance Francaise annexes throughout Cyprus. He was a close friend of Cypriot President Makarios, while he passionately fought for the rights of the Cypriot people.
In 1971, he was appointed Director of the French Cultural Centre in Genoa, Italy, and at the same time, he taught Modern Greek at the University of Genoa. He returned to Greece in 1975. Throughout his life, he gave numerous lectures and published articles and studies to promote Cyprus and the Cypriot issue and Greece’s resistance against the Nazis, as he lived through all these events, always having his wife Tatiana by his side.
Together they also managed to secure a significant donation of works of art, including some by leading artists such as Picasso and Matisse, for the Greek National Gallery. In 1982, Milliex was appointed corresponding member of the Athens Academy and the Marseilles Academy, while in 1986 he was declared honorary member of the Hellenic Literary Society.
In their letter of condolences, the French Embassy and the French Institute of Athens voiced their “deep sorrow for the death of the great philhellene, academic, author and avid supporter of the Greek-French relations, Roger Milliex.” The Greek political world also conveyed its condolences. State Minister and Government spokesperson described Roger Milliex as a man of kindness and passion, for whom Greece was never a foreign country. Politician Leonidas Kyrkos spoke of a man who was “deeply democratic, with great knowledge of Ancient Greek, who lived the dramas of the Greek people, loved them, understood them and felt for them. Roger was loved by many in his second homeland as they acknowledged his honest dedication and inspired contribution.”
In a relevant announcement, the Coalition of the Left described Roger Milliex as a great figure whose death constitutes “a great loss for our country, culture and the wider creative left-wing, which he served for decades, along with his unforgettable partner, Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex.” Finally, in a written statement, the Cypriot President conveyed the deep sorrow of his Government and the Cypriot people for the loss of Roger Milliex.
Tags: culture * french institute * Greece Abroad * Merlier * philhellenes * Philology * Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex
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