Tom , Who is Nikos Kazantzakis ?

[Bazzy]

Tom on your profile page it has some words " I hope for nothing . I fear nothing . I am free" . I presume they are by Nikos Kazantzakis . I was just wondering , who is he ? Please explain .

[Trent Lawless]

I'm a book guy, so I can give the "Encyclopedia Britannica" type answer to this, courtesy of imdb.com.

"Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete (Greece). He studied Law in Athens and in Paris, but soon he studied philosophy and literature. He travelled almost everywhere; he learnt many foreign languages and left his scientific research for Nitsche. At philosophy: "Ascetics" (Salvatores Dei, 1927), script that expresses the writer's belief for metaphysics. At poetry: "The Odyssey" (1938) "Tertsines" and also some poetic works for theatre: "Protomastoras" (=foreman) "Melissa" (=Bee) "Julian" "Prometheus" etc. His novels are: "Alexis Zorbas" (1946) "O Xristos xanastavronetai" (=Christ is recrucified) (1948) "O ftoxoulis tou Theou" (=The God's poor man) (1952-3) "Anafora ston Greco (=Reference to Greco) (1961) He died in 1957."

"Alexis Zorbas" is better known as "Zorba the Greek" in English.

Tom can probably fill in why he's important enough to him to merit a quote.

[Tom]

Mark shared some great stuff there. Thanks.

I became a fan after reading Zorba the Greek last summer, which was even better than I heard it was. I admired Nikos' life philosophy and looked up some stuff on the internet.

I believe those words are on his tombstone. I believe the expression represents the ultimate courageous, in fact spiritual, lifestyle. In fact, Zorba is personified in the GWF as Wolf, whose life philosophy is very much the same.

[Bazzy]

Thanks for the information !