Talk:Zorbas

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Alexis Zorbas was born in Kolindros, in Greece, in 1867. His name was actually Giorgis (George) and was the son of Fotis Zorbas a rich landowner. He had three siblings, Katerina, Yannis and Xenofondas.

Alexis Zorbas is the main character in the famous book of Nikos Kazantzakis, "The life and Works of Alexis Zorbas". The book, later, became the well know movie "Zorbas the Greek".

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/////The following material is from http://1dim-kolindr.pie.sch.gr/zorbas.htm and is translated with an automatic translator and is posted here to help someone write an article on Alexis Zorbas

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Alexis Zormpa's that his real name was Gjw'rgis, was given birth in the Koljndro' around in 1867. Was son of Fotis Zormpa' of rich landowner and he had other three brothers (the Katerina, Yannis and the Xenofondas). The statement, that Alexis Zormpa's, hero of known novel of Nikos Kazantza'ki, was given birth in the Koljndro' is drawn from the elements that present man of letters G. Anapljw'tis in the work him the genuine Zormpa's and the N. Kazantza'kis, as well as in the narrations of girl of Zormpa', Andronj'kis Keha'ef and other that were related with him in polyta'rahi his life.

Biography In the Koljndro' e'zise the children's hro'nja, but a adventure of his father with one Turk, them forced to leave and to install itself in the Katafy'gj of Pierias. Henceforth begins his polyta'rahi and mysterious life.

Works in the Katafy'gj in the properties and in his flocks, becomes lumberjack, later, leaves in Chalkidiki and works as miner in a French company of ekmeta'leysis meta'lwn.

Familial life Is known with arhjerga'ti the mine, Yannis Kalkoy'ni, is wedded his girl Helen, makes with her eight children, from which it loved particularly prwtocygate'ra the Andronj'ki but the wars and the death of woman of Helen, they bring infelicity in his family.. It abandons Chalkidiki and it comes in the Eleycerohw'rj Pieria that abstains eight kilometres from the Koljndro', where remain his brother Yannis Zormpa's, the doctor. In 1915 leave for ' Saint Term with the decision becomes monk. There ' will be known with the Kazantza'ki and a strong friendship will begin ne ties up the two men. Then it goes to the Ma'ni and works in metalej'o the Prasto'va.
The end him his upset life will stop in the Former Yougoslave Republic of Macedonia, where it was installed there, xanapantrey'tike it made also other children, new family. The V'Pagko'smjos War, the hunger and nazjstjki' slavery him sent in the grave in 1942.
Kazantza'kis and Zormpa's.

the Kazantza'kis in the vrahyhro'nja acquaintance with him, him inspired also him it litted up the street in order to write the work "the life and the State of Alexis Zormpa'", where him it will elect as one from the big man ofs letters of world. The Zormpa's at the Gew'rgjo. Anapljw'ti "... he is the person creme'nos from the ali'tjki life, kosmogyrjsme'nos with the golden dream of roaming, the primitive superman, dajmo'njos, insatiable woman. .. inexhaustible.

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A biography of Nikos Kazantzakis in

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kazantza.htm

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/////The following material is from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kazantza.htm and is posted here to help someone write an article on Kazantzakis

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Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957)

Prolific Greek writer, whose works include essays, novels, poems, tragedies, travel books, and translations of such classics as Dante's The Divine Comedy and J.W. von Goethe's Faust. Like his hero, Odysseus, Kazantzakis lived most of his artistic life outside Greece - except for the years of World War II. "I am a mariner of Odysseus with heart of fire but with mind ruthless and clear," Kazantzakis wrote in TODA RABA (1934). Several of the author's novels deal with the history and culture of his own country, and the mystical relationship between man and God.

"Having seen that I was not capable of using all my resources in political action, I returned to my literary activity. There lay the battlefield suited to my temperament. I wanted to make my novels the extension of my own father's struggle for liberty. But gradually, as I kept deepening my responsibility as a writer, the human problem came to overshadow political and social questions. All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, he more the danger increases and the heart shrinks." (from Nikos Kazantzakis by Helen Kazantzakis, 1968)

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Megalokastro, Ottoman Empire, now Iráklion, Crete, as the son of Michael Kazantzakis, a farmer and dealer of in animal feed, and his wife, the former Maria Christodoulzki. Kazantzakis was raised among peasants and although Kazantzakis left Crete as a young man, he returned to his homeland constantly in his art. He attended the Franciscan School of the Holy Cross, Naxos, and the Gymnasium at Herakleion (1899-1902). Kazantzakis then studied four years at the University of Athens, becoming Doctor of Laws in 1906.

From 1907 to 1909 he studied philosophy in Paris at the Collège de France under Henri Bergson. His first book, OPHIS KAI KRINO, was published in 1906. In the same year appeared his play XEMERÕNEI. Between the 1910s and 1930s Kazantzákis wrote dramas, verse and travel books, and travelled widely in China, Japan, Russia, England, Spain, and other countries. His first novel, Toda raba, was published in French when he was 51. Kazantzakis spent many years in public service and in 1919 he was appointed director general at the Greek Ministry of Public Welfare.

By 1927, when Kazantzakis resigned from this post, he had been responsible for the feeding and eventual rescue of more than 150 000 people of Greek origin who had been caught up in the civil war raging in the Caucasian region of the Soviet Union. Though never a member of the Communist party, Kazantzakis sympathized leftist movements in the early phase of his life and awarded the Lenin Peace Prize later. In 1957 he lost the Nobel Prize by a single vote to the French writer Albert Camus.

Before WW II Kazantzakis settled on the island of Aegina, and in 1948 he moved to Antibes, southern France. After the war he served as a minister in the Greek government of Aegina. In 1947-48 he worked for UNESCO. Kazantzákis died of leukemia on October 26, 1957, in Freiburg im Breisgau, in Germany. Helen Kazantzakis, his wife, tells in the author's biography that he always had as his traveling companion a miniature Dante, and Dante alone remained at his bedside until his last breath.

Although Kazantzakis wrote a number of his novels in French, his most celebrated works were composed in the colloquial language of the Cretan working classes. His best-known novel, Zorba the Greek, was made into a popular and highly successful movie (1964). The story focuses on the relationship of a writer and intellectual, modelled on Kazantzakis, and an uneducated man, Zorba, who drinks, works, loves and lives like a force of nature. His character has been seen as the personification of Henri Bergson's ideas of élan vital. He doesn't care about books, he values more experience and understanding than scholarly learning. The narrator meets Alexis Zorbas in Pireus. He plans to reopen on the island of Crete an abandoned mine and Zorbas becomes his foreman. Kazantzakis weaves the narrator's childhood memories and thoughts against the life and teaching of Zorbas. After a series of tragedies, failures and small victories, the narrator leaves Crete, but asks zorba to teach him to dance. "How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea." (from Zorba the Greek)

Freedom or Death was based on the Cretan revolt of 1889, one of the final rebellions against Turkish rule. One of the central characters is Captain Mikalis who chooses rebellion instead of love, and dies in the middle of his cry, "Freedom or..." Kazantzakis shows also understanding of the Turkish culture in the character of Nuri bei, who commits suicide. The Greek Passion was story about a group of villagers under Turkish domination who re-enact the Passion. The Last Temptation of Christ explored the theme of the battle between spirit and flesh. The book was banned by Vatican in 1954. Also members the Orthodox Church of America damned the work as extremely indecent and atheistic, after admitting that they hadn't read it and had based their case on the magazine articles. The book presented a Christ as an existential hero, who wishes to avoid his divine mission until he is awakened by Judas, whom he calls his brother. Judas tries to same Jerusalem, but his heroic struggle against God ends in failure. Christ is portrayed as a rebel against tradition, who finally asks Judas's help. Martin Scorsese's film adaption from 1988 boosted the sale of the book. Kazantzakis's major work was the enormous poetic work ODÌSSIA (Odyssey: A Modern Sequel), 33 333 lines long, which he wrote seven times and published in 1938. The work was accused of being too revolutionary in vocabulary and diction. Odìssia manifested the author's deep knowledge of modern archeological and anthropological discoveries.

For further reading: Nikos Kazantzakis and His Odyssey by P. Prevelakis (1961); Nikos Kazantzakis by H. Kazantzakis (1968); Nikos Kazantzakis: La vie, son oeuvre by C. Janiaud-Lust (1970); Kazantzakis and the Linguistic Revolution in Greek Literature by P. Bien (1972); Nikos Kazantzakis by P. Bien (1972); Nietzsche and Kazantzakis by B.T. McDonough (1978); The Spiritual Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis, ed. by K. Friar (1979); The Cretan Glance by M.P. Levitt (1980); Tormented by Happiness by P. Bien (1982); Kazantzakis: Politics of the Spirit by P. Bien (1988); The Last Temptation of Hollywood by L.W. Poland (1988); God's Struggler, ed. by Darren Middleton and Peter Bien (1996)

Selected works:

OPHIS KAI KRINO, 1906 - Serpent and Lily
PRÕTOMASTORAS, 1910
SALVATORES DEI / ASKITIKÍ, 1923 - The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises
NIKEPHOROS PHÕKAS, 1927
TAXIDEUONTAS, 1927
CHRISTOS, 1928
TI IDA STI RUSSIA, 1928
TODA RABA, 1934 - transl.
ISPANIA, 1937 - Spain
ODÍSSIA, 1938 - The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel
IAPÕNIA-KINA, 1938 - Japan/China
ANGHLIA, 1941 - England
IULIANOS, 1945
KAPODISTRIAS, 1946
VÍOS KAI POLITÍA TOY ALEXSI ZORBÁ, 1946 - Zorba the Greek - Kerro minulle Zorbas, suom. Elvi Sinervo - film 1964, dir. by Michael Cacoyannis, music by Mikis Theodorakis, starring Anthony Quinn
O KAPETÁN MIHÁILIS, 1953 - Freedom of Death - Vapaus tai kuolema - suom. Elvi Sinervo
CHRISTOS XANASTAURÕNETAI, 1954 - The Geek Passion / Christ Recrusified - Ikuinen vaellus
O TELEFTEOS PIRASMOS, 1955 - The Last Temptation of Christ - see also Jose Saramago's O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo, 1991 - Kristuksen viimeinen kiusaus - film 1988, dir. by Martin Scorsese, script Paul Schrader - "For many years I had the Kazantzakis novel The Last Temptation of Christ under option. That was one I'd always intended to do. I was so glad that Marty [Scorsese] finally did it [1988] because: can you imagine what would have happened if a Jew had done that movie?" Sidney Lumet in Who the Devil Made It by Peter Bogdanocich, 1998
KUROS, 1955
MELISSA, 1955
OMIROU ILIADA, 1955
THEATRO, 1955
BOUDHAS, 1956
SODOMA KAI GOMORRHA, 1956
O FTOHOYLIS TOY THEOY, 1956 - Saint Francis / God's Pauper - Pyhä köyhyys
EPISTLES APO TI GALATIA, 1958 - partial tr. in The Sufering God
LE JARDIN DES ROCHERS, 1959 - The Rock Garden
TERSTINES, 1960
ANAPHORA STO GRECO, 1961 - Report to Greco - Tilinteko El Grecolle
TAXIDEVONTAS, 1961 - Journeying
O MORIAS, 1961 - Journey to Morea
I ADHERFOFADHES, 1963 - The Fratricides - Veljesviha
Three Plays, 1964
ADELPHOPHADES, 1965
TETRAKOSIA GRAMMATA TOY KAZANTZAKIS STON PREVELAKI, 1965
SYMPOSION, 1971 - Symposium
The Suffering God, 1978
Alexander the Great, 1981
At the Palace of Knossos, 1988 (translated by Themi Vasils and Theodora Vasils)