written by Anna
"I am a weak, ephemeral creature made
of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me."
"We come from a dark abyss, we end in
a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life"
The top writer of Modern Greek literature, Nikos
Kazantzakis was born in 1883
in Heraklion, Crete, and studied law in Athens, which became a
university lecturer with a dissertation on the Fr. Nietzsche, from whom he was
influenced a lot. Kazantzakis
was a cranky guy who liked to travel, so he visited many parts of Europe and Asia. He recorded many of the travel experiences in his
later books. In 1948 he went to Antibes,
France, where
he devoted himself entirely to literature and in that time he wrote his most
important works. His works, with inspiration and historical depth,
characterized by anxiety about redemption and passion for life, of faith in man
and admiration in the separate personalities.
He worked with newspapers and magazines, and was
established in 1927 with the "Ascetic" expressing metaphysical ideas.
Then the huge task of translating "Odyssey" (1938) comes and in 1946 a novel-hymn to life:
"The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas" was published. A whole new
world and an era of Hellenism were represented brilliantly in "Captain
Michael" (1950), in "Jesus Recrucified" (1948) and 'Aderfofades
"(1954). The "Last Temptation" (1951) is a singular perspective
on the divine drama. The picture of the work of Kazantzakis closes with the
posthumous publication of his autobiography "Report to Greco" (1961).
In 1957 he became seriously ill and in October of the
same year he died in a clinic in Germany. His body was transported
and buried at the Venetian
Castle of Heraklion, as
requested by him. He was buried with all the values he should be, and on his grave was written the words "I expect nothing, I fear nothing,
I am free."
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