Point 1-The Route of N. Kazantzakis and the real George Zorba in Stoupa
(Source: NARTURA – Cultural Association for Art and Nature)
In the heart of Stoupa, where the waves gently touch the shore of Kalogria Beach, stands the proud bust of Nikos Kazantzakis. His gaze is turned toward the horizon, perhaps toward his inner horizon, the one that penetrates the spirit and destiny of humankind. The sculpture was created by artist Christos Riganas and installed in 1994 by the local community as a sign of respect and gratitude to one of the greatest thinkers of Greek literature. The unveiling was carried out by Georgios Exarchouleas, the godson of Zorbas himself, symbolically completing a circle of life and creation.
Here, in the peaceful landscape of the Messenian Mani, Kazantzakis spent two fertile yet internally turbulent years (1917-1918) alongside the real-life Georgis Zorbas. Their life at Kalogria and their shared experience working at the lignite mine of Prastova left an indelible mark on Kazantzakis’ soul and became the foundation from which the mythical character of Alexis Zorbas was born.
The Man – Nikos Kazantzakis
Born in Heraklion in 1883, when Crete was still under Ottoman rule, Kazantzakis grew up during a time of both internal and external upheaval. His father, Michalis, was a strong and strict figure whose influence can often be seen in the heroic and uncompromising characters of his son’s works.
At the French Commercial School in Naxos, he first encountered European culture, while later in Athens he studied law, graduating with honors. Yet his true passion was not law. It was truth, philosophical, existential, and artistic truth.
In Paris, he attended lectures by Henri Bergson, the great philosopher, while the influences of Friedrich Nietzsche, Dante Alighieri, Odysseus, and Buddha profoundly shaped his thought and literary work.
The Work – An Inner Odyssey
Kazantzakis was remarkably prolific: poet, playwright, novelist, translator, journalist, and traveller. His first work, Serpent and Lily, was published under a pseudonym, but he soon became internationally known under his own name.
Zorba the Greek established him worldwide. The flame of Zorbas was the flame of life itself, the very life Kazantzakis experienced here in Kalogria.
Other emblematic works include Christ Recrucified, Captain Michalis, The Last Temptation of Christ, Report to Greco, and, of course, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, his monumental epic of modern human existence written in 33,333 verses.
Persecution and Honours
His work, bold and philosophically restless, was not easily accepted. The Church condemned him, first in 1928, for The Saviours of God: Spiritual Exercises. Kazantzakis responded with courage and dignity:
“You gave me a curse, Holy Fathers…
I wish your conscience to be as clear as mine.”
In 1956, he was awarded the International Peace Prize. In his speech, he urged humanity to mobilise the forces of love before it became lost in the inhumanity of the nuclear age.
Travels and Companionship
Nikos Kazantzakis was a tireless traveller of both the world and the soul. From Moscow to Mount Sinai, from Japan to Spain, he searched for the thread that unites the human adventure.
Equally important was his spiritual friendship with Angelos Sikelianos, a relationship deep, poetic, and almost mystical.
The End – And the Beginning of Immortality
In the summer of 1957, Kazantzakis, forever restless and open to the world and its ideas, travelled to China as a guest of the government. It would become his final great journey. He returned exhausted, his health severely weakened. The writer who had travelled through both geographical and existential landscapes was approaching his final frontier.
He was soon diagnosed with leukemia, although testimonies suggest the illness may have silently troubled him since the winter of 1938. He was first transferred to Copenhagen and later to Freiburg in Germany. There, on October 26th, 1957, he passed away at the age of 74.
Some claimed it was not leukemia that defeated him, but a severe form of Asian flu. Whatever the immediate cause, Kazantzakis died standing within the fire of creation, leaving behind a body of work immense, uncompromising, profoundly human, and universal.
His remains were brought back to Greece through the efforts of Eleni Kazantzakis and with the assistance of Aristotle Onassis, who provided a private aircraft for the journey home. However, the Church of Greece, remaining opposed to the writer’s work and philosophical explorations, refused him a church funeral and denied burial in a Greek cemetery.
Thus, in a symbolic and deeply poetic gesture, Nikos Kazantzakis was buried upon the Venetian walls of Heraklion, not simply outside the cemeteries, but literally on the walls of the city that gave him birth. Upon his grave was engraved, according to his own wish, the phrase that became a universal declaration of freedom:
“I hope for nothing.
I fear nothing.
I am free.”
This final chapter of Kazantzakis’ life is the epilogue of a man who lived in constant spiritual struggle, far from certainties and easy answers. A man who fought to transform pain into flame, silence into cry, and death into an act of freedom.