Vassilis Rotas

He was born in Chiliomodi on the Peloponnese in 1889 and studied literature at the University of Athens and drama at the Athens Conservatoire.^[2] Following this, he established the Popular Theatre of Athens in 1932 and translated some theater plays of William Shakespeare into Greek during the 1930s.^[3]

After Nazi Germany occupied Greece in World War II, he joined the National Liberation Front (EAM)^[2] and established the Theater of the Mountains.^[4] Following this, he toured the country with theater plays^[2] together with members of the United Panhellenic Organization of Youth (EPON), the youth wing of the EAM.^[5] He was the author of the hymn of the EAM to a melody of the Russian Katyusha.^[2] He was the Director of Culture in the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA), the political resistance movement against Nazi Germany.^[2] Following the end of World War II, he was again involved in the translations of the works of Shakespeare.^[3] Rotas and Voula Damianakou published the magazine Laikos Logos between 1966 and 1967.^[6] He died in 1977.^[7]

Rotas was an important figure in the development of the Greek language, preferring the Demotic over the Katharevousa.^[8] Demotic became the official Greek language in 1976.^[9] He is also the translator of the complete works of Shakespeare from English to Greek, often using words and terms seldom used in casual Greek, both the Kathaverousa and Demotic languages.^[8]

He married his childhood friend Katerina Giannakopoulou and had three children, one of them the prominent Greek composer and theatrical contributor Nikiforos Rotas.^[10][11] Later, Vassilis was the partner of Velou Damianakou, who also was a member of the Greek resistance against Nazi Germany.^[12] Damianakou assisted him in several of the Shakespeare translations.^[3]