|
|
|
|
|
Eleni Kazantzaki
|
||
|
In may 1924 Eleni Samiou - 21 years old - met the somewhat older Nikos Kazantzakis. The young girl from Athens was fascinated by the dynamic Nikos, and they started an affair, which 20 years later - after many joint journeys and experiences - ended in a friendly marriage. |
|
|
| Eleni chose to spend her life supporting her husband. In this way it was she, who commented on his books, before they were published. She helped him to make fair copies of his manuscripts, which was not always a rewarding task because of his perfectionism. Kazantzakis' work "The Odyssey" was for example rewritten 7 times, so seven times she had to write the 33.333 verses. | ||
|
Eleni 1924 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
Nikos was very fond of Eleni, who was as well the partner of his life as his friend. As he himself wrote, it was she who created the daily pleasure in his life, and that he would have been long dead, if it had not been for her. |
|
|
In Gottesgab 1931 |
In Antibes 1956 |
|
|
|
||
| Eleni
Kazantzaki is probably best known for the large biography of her husband:
"Nikos Kazantzakis - the uncompromising", which in
addition to the story of Nikos' life contains a large number of his
letters. It was published for the first time in Paris in 1968 in French
and has later been translated into English, German, Spanish, Greek,
Hungarian and Romanian.
|
||
| After
Nikos'
death
Eleni moved to Geneva, where she continued to extent people's knowledge of
her late husband. From 1989
until her death she has been living in Athens.
|
||
| Eleni Kazantzaki died in Athens on February the 18th 2004, and her bier was flown to Iraklion. After the ceremony in the Cathedral of Agios Minas her bier was brought to the Martenigo Bastion, where she was consigned to the earth next to her husband. |
|
|
|
|
||
| The black-and-white pictures are from Mr. Giorgos Anemogiannis' book | ||
| "Nikos Kazantzakis 1883-1957 Eikonografimeni viografia" | ||
