Kazantzakis, Nikos (1885-1957)

Greek writer. His works include the poem I Odysseia/The Odyssey (1938), which continues Homer's Odyssey, and the novels Zorba the Greek (1946), Christ Recrucified (1948), The Greek Passion, and The Last Temptation of Christ (both 1951). Zorba the Greek was filmed in 1964 and The Last Temptation of Christ (controversially) in 1988.

Kazantzakis was born in Iraklion, Crete, and educated there and in Naxos. He studied in Athens 1902-06 and Paris 1907-09. Much travelled, he finally left Greece for Antibes, southern France, in 1948. The philosophers Bergson and Nietzsche were early influences, and religious problems always held a fascination for him; Asceticism (1927) expresses his metaphysical beliefs. Before 1939 he wrote mainly tragedies and travel books, apart from the ambitious but unsuccessful Odyssey. His major novels, written after World War II and late in life, attained international fame.