Greek literary figures: Nikos Kazantzakis

The first in Monash University academic Nick Trakakis' series on major Greek literary figures: Nikos Kazantzakis


Nikos Kazantzakis is undoubtedly the best known modern Greek writer outside of Greece.

He lost the Nobel Prize by a single vote to Albert Camus.

He was born on December 2, 1885 in Iraklion, Crete, then still part of the Ottoman Empire.

He witnessed many of the Cretan rebellions against the Turks, and during this time, while in his teens, he was sent for safety to the island of Naxos to continue his high school education.

He went on to study law at the University of Athens, and completed postgraduate studies in Paris, where he attended the lectures of the great French philosopher, Henri Bergson.

It was also at this time that Kazantzakis fell under the spell of Nietzsche, and he completed his doctorate on “Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State”.

His doctorate, however, was rejected by the University of Athens, no doubt because of its revolutionary ideas.

In the years to follow, he travelled widely as a newspaper correspondent to Spain, England,
Italy (even interviewing Mussolini in Rome in October 1926), Russia, Egypt, Palestine, and Japan, also spending 40 days on Mt Athos with fellow poet Angelos Sikelianos.

In 1922, while in Berlin, he learned of the Asia Minor Disaster and he gave up his previous nationalism in favour for (but only briefly) the cause of communism.

His masterpiece in this early period was his philosophical but poetic work, The Saviours of God: Spiritual Exercises (published in 1927).

As a result of this work, he was charged with atheism by the Greek authorities, who threatened to bring legal proceedings against him.

In 1938, and after 8 drafts, came his epic poem, Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, made up of 33,333 verses.

In 1945 he married his longtime companion, Eleni Samiou, and it was this time – the post-WWII period, when he was in his 60s – that he was to write a series of novels that were to bring him international acclaim (except in Greece!).

These include Zorba the Greek (1946), his memorable portrayal of the passionate Alexis Zorbas, and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955), a controversial re-telling of the human struggles of Jesus, placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Pope in 1954, and condemned by Synod of the Orthodox Church in Greece (the book was made into a film in 1988 by Martin Scorsese, again provoking much controversy).

My favourite, however, is the last work he completed, The Poor Man of God, a wonderful account of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi – although unjustly rejected by some critics, this novel shows Kazantzakis at his best:
Kazantzakis died on October 26, 1957.

Earlier that year he lost the Nobel Prize by a single vote to Albert Camus.

After Kazantzakis’ death, his body was transferred to Crete, where he lies buried with his infamous epitaph inscribed on his tomb: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”

Dr Nick Trakakis teaches Philosophy and Religious Studies at Monash and Deakin Universities. His most recent book is The End of Philosophy of Religion, published by Continuum in London.