1883, February 18, Friday. Nikos Kazantzakis is born in Heraklion (Megalo Kastro) of the Turk-trodden Crete.
His father's name was Michalis (1856 - Dec. 1932), with origins from the village Varvaroi (Βαρβάροι) of the Pediada province of the prefecture of Heraklion. He was a merchant (agricultural products, wine, etc.) and landowner; his store was located at the Kamaraki district in Heraklion and the lands (vineyards and glebe-house¹) outside the city. On April 23, 1882 he married Maria Christodoulaki (†decd. March 1932), from the village Asyrotoi (Ασυρώτοι) of the Mylopotamos district of the prefecture of Rethymno. After Nikos, Michalis and Maria (or Marigo) Kazantzakis had three more children: Anastasia (the later wife of Michalis Saklampanis) on October 6, 1884, Eleni (the later wife of Aristeidis Theodosiadis) on April 13, 1887, and Giorgos in 1890. Giorgos died in infancy.

1889. During the Cretan Revolution of '89 the Kazantzakis family fled and sought refuge to Piraeus for about six months. The young K.'s first introduction to the life of a refugee.

1890-96. He receives his basic education at the School of Heraklion.

1897-99. Following his family again, who escapes to Naxos during the most recent great Cretan Revolution, he is registered as a half-board student at the French Commerce School of the Holy Cross. There, he is instructed in the French and Italian languages and is acquainted with the Western civilization through French literature. His studies are completed in January 1899.

1899-1902. He studies at the Heraklion High-School (the principal was Christos Androutsos, followed by Ioannis Perdikaris). In the last class he has but twelve classmates. He plays Kreon at the Oedipus Rex school production.

1902. September 20. He comes² to Athens to study at the University.

1902-06. He studies at the University of Athens Law School. He spends his summers in Crete. He receives his doctoral degree in Law with the highest honors (December 9, 1906; Rector, N.G. Polites, Dean, D. Theofanopoulos, General Secretary, K. Palamas).

1906. His first appearance in Greek letters with the essay The Disease of the Century³ is published by the journal Pinakotheke⁴ (March – April – May 1906). He signs with the pseudonym ‘Karma Nirvami’.
He spends his summer in Heraklion. There he writes (in August) the drama: “The Day is Breaking”⁵. After October he settles in Athens, in a room in an apartment at 14, Sina Str. His first book is published: Serpent and Lily by Karma Nirvami,⁶ Athens 1906 (95 pages). It is dedicated to “My Toto” (a.k.a Galatea Alexiou, who would later become his wife).

1907. In April, May and June he works as a chronographer under the pseudonym “Akritas” for the Acropolis newspaper.
May. His drama “The Day is Breaking” is praised at the Pantelideios Drama Competition, with the recommendation of Spyridon Lambros.
July. His play is performed at “Athenaion” Theater.
October 1. He arrives in Paris for postgraduate studies. He settles in a hotel at Rue des Carmes, No.3, and then in another hotel at Rue de Sommerard, 13 (both in the 5th Arrondisment). He sends some dispatches to the Athenian newspaper Neon Asty⁷ with the signatures: Ν., Karma Nirvami, Akritas.

November. The journal Pinakotheke publishes a scene from the Third Act of his drama “Fasga”.⁸ Towards the end of the year, he writes another play for the theater entitled: “Until when?”⁹ (he submits both simultaneously for the Drama Competition of the University of Athens.)

1908. Until the end of June he resides in Paris. He attends University lectures at Law School, but mainly, he attends courses taught by Henri Bergson at the Collège de France.
He writes “Broken Souls”¹⁰ (which he published in “Noumas”,¹¹ from August 1909 henceforth, under the pseudonym Petros Psiloreites), the dissertation Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Law and the State,¹² etc.
July-November. He spends his vacations in Crete.
End of November. He returns to Paris. He settles in a small apartment at Rue Cardinal Lemoine, 12 (always in ‘Quartier Latin’).

1909. January-February. He resides in Paris. He completes his dissertation on Nietzsche and plans his novels “Life, the Empress”¹³ and “Theanthropos”,¹⁴ which would constitute, with “Broken Souls”, a trilogy.
March. He spends the first fifteen days in Florence (16, via Ventisette Aprile). He spends in Rome the second fortnight of March and about ten days of April.
End of April. He returns to Heraklion with the manuscript of “Masterbuilder”¹⁵ and Nietzsche. He immediately publishes the latter: Ν. Μ. Kazantzakis, Doctor of Law, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Law and State doctoral thesis, printing office of St. Μ. Alexiou, Heraklion, Crete, 1909 (93 pp).
He publishes, under the pseudonym Petros Psilorites, ‘the one-act tragedy’ “Comedy”¹⁶ in the Kritiki Stoa¹⁷ of Heraklion (pp. 125-144). At the same time he publishes the philosophical thesis “Is Science Bankrupt?”¹⁸ in the magazine Panathenaia¹⁹ (November 15, pp. 71-75).*

* I am documenting the publications which appeared in volumes and other ones of special importance.

1911. June-first days of October. He spends his vacation at Krási village (of the district Pedias of the prefecture of Heraklion) with Galatea Alexiou and her family.
October 11. He marries Galatea Alexiou at Agios Konstantinos Church (of the Cemetery); his best man is Georgios Fanourakis, his old classmate and fellow student. The newly wedded couple settles a short while later in Athens, 120, Charilaou Trikoupi Str.²⁰

1911-15. The Publishing House of G. Fexis publishes the following translations of K., which are also a testament for the direction where his spirit leads him:
William James, Theory of Emotion,²¹1911.
F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy²² (Die Geburt der Tragödie), 1912.
F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra²³(Also Sprach Zaratustra), 1913.
J. P. Eckermann, Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann²⁴(Goethes Gesprache Mit J. P. Eckermann), 1913.
C. A. Laisant, Education based on science²⁵ (L'éducation fondée sur la science), 1913.
M. Mæterlinck, The Treasure of the Humble²⁶(Le Trésor des humbles), 1913.
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species,²⁷ 1915.

Louis Büchner, Matter and Power²⁸ (Kraft und Stoff), 1915.
H. Bergson, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic²⁹(Le rire. Essai sur la signification du comique), 1915.
Plato, Alcibiades – Alcibiades II (Αλκιβιάδης - Αλκιβιάδηςδεύτερος), 1912.
Plato, Ion - Minos - Demodocus - Sisyphus - Clitophon³⁰(Ίων - Μίνως - Δημόδοκος - Σίσυφος - Κλειτοφών).

1912. Towards the end of the year the couple moves to 30Β Anagnostopoulou Str. (where they would reside until 1922, except for the year 1915).
He publishes a long essay on Bergson in the “Educational Association Bulletin”³¹ (pp. 310-334), which also circulated as a reprint.
July. The couple summers again at the Krási village with Markos Avgeris, Kostas Varnalis, Lefteris and Ellie Alexiou.

1912-13. During the Balkan Wars he enlists as a volunteer. He serves in the Private Office of the Prime Minister, close to Ioannis Damvergis.
He tours Northern Greece: Vodena, Argyrokastro.

1914. November 11. He makes the acquaintance of Angelos Silekianos at the offices of the Educational Association. They immediately acknowledge one another as brothers. Three days later they depart for Mount Athos. Their perambulation, which is equal to a pilgrimage and a spiritual exercise, lasts forty days. K. has kept a diary of their hike: Thessalonica (Nov. 15-18) – Karyes – Iviron Monastery – Stavronikita – Pantokratoros –Stavronikita – Karakalou – Filotheou – Lavra – Koryfi tou Athona – Skete Ioasafaion – Ag. Pavlou – Dionysiou – Gregoriou – Simonopetra – Xenofontos – Ag. Panteleimonos – Docheiariou – Zografou – Chiliantari – Vatopedi – Karyes – Koutloumousiou – Karyes – Xeropotamou – Thessalonica – Volos – Athens (Dec. 25).
On November 29, at Karakalou Monastery, K. notes in his Diary: “At nights, lying in our beds, we converse again [with Sikelianos] about the essence of our ultimate desire – to formulate a religion. All is ripe. Ah! How to externalize the holiest and deepest we possess.” On December 8, at Ag. Pavlos Monastery, he notes: “Tonight, I was deeply moved by Tolstoy. His tragic flight = a confession of defeat. He wanted to formulate a religion and he did not succeed but to create romances and art. His best essence – he knew this well – remained unexpressed”.* On December 18, in Vatopedi, K. notes: “I read Dante (canto 26) on Odys[seus]. Then Buddha, and my eyes filled with tears”.**

* In another Diary that bears the inscription 1915 on the cover, Κ. notes on March 19, 1915: “A young man, Merkatis, told me tonight (in Mega Spilaion) that my face resembles Tolstoy. This moved me, because the essence of Tolstoy’s effort is my work”.

** For the importance of the 26th canto of “Inferno” during the creation of “The Odyssey”, see P. Prevelakis “The Poet and the Poem of the Odyssey”³², Athens, 1958, pp. 98-99. Here we may, I think, see the very first spark that lit the pyre.

1915. K. and Sikelianos tour Greece systematically, in search of “the conscience of the Earth and their race”.
January. Athens, Dafni, Elefsina, Kaisariani.
February. Delphi.
March. Mega Spilaion (Passion Week), Corinth, Mycenae, Argos, Tegea, Sparta, Mystras.*
They reside, at times, at Sykia, Sikelianos’s house, they plan a trip to India. They read Claudel, Whitman, et.al.

April-June. K. resides in Athens, in the company of his wife. He reads, according to his diary, Bergson, Tagore, Claudel, Eucken (La valeur de la vie), Croiset (Pindare), Maurras (Anthinéa), D’Annunzio, Barrès (Le voyage de Sparte). He plans to write “Hellas”, “Theofano”, (which ended up in “Nikeforos Fokas”, “Dionysus”³³. On May 1st, he notes: “My 3 great teachers: Homer – Dante – Bergson”. On the next day, he continues: “This whole new development of mine, I owe to: a) My excursions: Mount Athos, Mystras, Delphi b) Μy latest readings: Dante, Rodin (L’Art, by Gsell³⁴, and Cathédrales), Bergson, Claudel (Cinq Grandes Odes) c) My companionship with Sikelianos”.
July 9. He departs on his own for Sifnos. He settles in the Monastery of Panagia tou Vounou, in a cell. From July 12 to 18 he authors a book, probably “Mount Athos”*. “I write, I write, I found release, the knot was untangled and the sob fell off, I’m finding relief, I am joyful, as though I have never known people. In my cell confined, alone with oneself, facing myself”. “On July 18 at noon, I completed the entire work. It is the skeleton³⁵, but it unburdened me, because it was written with total sincerity. Immediately after I fell ill, with vomit and fever...”
July 25. He returns to his home in Athens.
August 10-25. At Sykia with Sikelianos: “At Sykia, where my life’s joy is divinely balanced. I want for nothing. Laudato si, mi Signore, per il fratello Angelo chi è bello et robustoso et casto et forte».**
August 25-31. Athens.
August 31. With his wife at Sikelianos’s house at Sykia. From there, during the first twenty days of September, the couple and Sikelianos venture out to various excursions in the Peloponnese: Olympia (Sept. 7), Thalero Korinthias (Sept. 10).
On September 11, K. notes: “We are departing for Sykia, and in Patras we hear the news of the recruitment” (referring to the general mobilization proclaimed by Venizelos within the scope of his temporary agreement with the Crown). On September 12, in Sykia, he notes: “My entire work will have a plan [devise] and purpose. Come l’uom s’etterna³⁶. This was where I ended up.***
September 22-30. He is in Athens. Nikos and Galatea K. rent, once again, the house of 30b Anagnostopoulou Str., which they had vacated for one year, in order to live at Ambelokipoi.
October 3. He goes to Thessalonica to sign a contract with I. Skordilis for a business venture concerning an operation which will carry down timber from Mount Athos.
“What a movement, what an exquisite moment of armies, races, fever!” he notes in his Diary. (He refers to the troops deployed by the French and the English to aid the Serbs.) K. strives to secure a living so that he may devote himself to writing. “My works: 1) Mount Athos 2) Petros Managis³⁷ 3) Herakles³⁸ 4) Christos³⁹ 5) Odysseus⁴⁰ 6) Theofano⁴¹.” (Of those, we know with certainty, that he wrote the ones numbered 3-6. Herakles and Christos were written, it seems so, after Odysseus and Nikeforos.) But he is, at the same time, consumed by messianic passions. On October 16 he notes in his diary: “I am reading Tolstoy’s biography. I am always moved by his rapture; literature is insufficient for him. Necessity for religion. I would start where Tolstoy ended.”

* The two poets are not indifferent to the tempest that shakes the country due to the discord between Venizelos and the Crown. On March 27, 1915 they sent a telegram to Venizelos: “From Sparta, under the stern inspiration of Orthía Artemis, we are sending a reverential greeting to the magnanimous citizen elevating himself today to the ultimate sacrifice.”

** I make this conjecture because in the Mount Athos⁴² Diary which bears on the cover the inscription Nber-Dber 1914, K. has noted (p. 98) that he plans to write a book about their “spiritual pilgrimage” [with Sikelianos]: “how we experienced our races, the faith of our fathers, how we elevated in all places the soul, how we saluted life which rises like a dart towards the heavens […] how we read Dante, Buddha, the Gospel. How we conversed on Greece and on life. […]”

*** (Sic). He paraphrases a St Francis hymn.

**** (“Inferno”, XV 85.) Compare with the dedication in my book “Kritikos”⁴³ to K. The coincidence is, I think, noteworthy.

1916. Athens.
Mid March. The “Masterbuilder”⁴⁴, adapted by Manolis Kalomiris into a “musical tragedy” is performed on the stage of the Municipal Theater by the “Greek Musical Theater Group” .
August 20. Associate of the Society of Social and Political Sciences.⁴⁵ (The relevant certificate is signed by Konst. Zavitsanos and Konst. Triantafyllopoulos.)

1917. He is at Prastova, Mani with Giorgis Zorbas. They are trying to organize the exploitation of a lignite mine. Galatea K. visits them during Easter, Sikelianos in June.
September. Towards the end of the month, K. departs, through Italy*, for Switzerland, where he will be accommodated by his friend Giannis Stavridakis, Consul of Greece in Zurich.

* A letter of K. from Milan, addressed to his father, bears the date of Sept. 10, 1917. The date must be considered with the calendar valid in Greece. Even after the establishment of the new calendar in our country (March 23, 1924) K. writes to his father according to the old one so that he may not cause him any undue distress. A certain confusion may result from this.

1918. With Zurich as point of departure, he tours Switzerland in, almost, all directions. In his Diary, he records the stations in his tour and the intense experiences of the era: pilgrimage to Nietzsche’s ‘lairs’, forceful messianic yearning (first plans for the founding of a Monastery), horror at the “canons of War”, an emotional bond with a Greek scientist, whom we shall call, for now, Mudita, as he himself named her in some of his articles. (“Mudita and I”⁴⁶, article in Eleftheros Typos⁴⁷ of the 4th of July, 1926; a letter to his “Beloved Mudita”, in “Taxidevontas” (Journeying)⁴⁸ of 1927, pp. 234-240; the dedication of “Nikeforos Fokas”, 1928).

1919. February 27-March 9. He is with Sikelianos at Spetses.
April 2-May 8. He is alone at the village of Milies of Thessaly, “At Sperantza’s home”. He works on the tragedy “Herakles”.⁴⁹
May 8. He is appointed Director by Venizelos (and a short while after, General Manager) of the newly-formed Ministry of Care.
July. Mid-month, he embarks from Athens as Head of the Mission for the repatriation of the Greeks of Caucasus. His principal companions were: Herakles Polemarchakis, Giannis Konstantarakis, Giannis Aggelakis, Giorgis Zorbas. Giannis Stavridakis, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborates with the mission. (He died in Tbilisi from pneumonia that same year).
August 11. K. departs from Batum (or Batumi) on the “Kiraly” boat, heading to Paris through Italy, to report to Venizelos. Barbara Nikolaevna Tamanhief sees him off. “She filled my cabin with white and red roses. Unbearable bitterness.” (I am recording this information and the name, as we will encounter this incident anonymously in Report to Greco.⁵⁰)

August 15. Constantinople.
August 18. Taranto, Italy.
August 19. Rome.
August 21. Paris. “Collaboration with Venizelos: cold, abrupt, hostile”.
After Paris, K. returns to Athens. He travels to Macedonia and Thrace for the settlement of the refugees. “Horrid, feverish labor”. (K. estimates the number of the repatriated refugees to be 150.000.)

1920. Easter at Agoriani (“at Loukas Arvanitis’s home”) with Kostas Sfakianiakis, the musician from Heraklion. Monastery of Prophet Elias, Delphi.
August-October. From Aug. 7 until Oct. 7 he is at the Vrontisi Monastery, in Crete, continuing with his composition of the metrical tragedy: “Herakles”.⁵¹
Sept. 4-8. He tours with Abbot Timotheos Tsagarakis: Moires, Kalyviani, Faistos, Odigitra, Apezanes.
October 8. Heraklion.
October 10. Athens.
November. Following the defeat of the Liberal Party after the general elections of November 1st, K. leaves the Ministry of Care. On November 21 (old calendar) he departs for Paris, where he remains until December 20 (new calendar), whence he departs for Berlin.

1921. January. He visits the German cities: Dresden, Leipzig, Jena, Weimar, Nuremburg, Munich. On January 24 he arrives in Vienna (on his way to Greece) through Austria and Italy. On January 30 he is in Venice.
February 6. He arrives in Athens.
February-June. Athens, at home, 30b Anagnostopoulou Str.
July. Kifissia, with Kostas Sfakianakis. He works on the tragedy Christos.⁵²
August 4-22. Crete. Excursions with Lefteris Alexiou at Skoiloi, Agies Paraskes, Houdetsi, Meleses, Kakon Oros, Armyros.
End of August. Return to Athens.
December 22. Excursion to Messolonghi with Kostas Sfakianakis and Vassos Daskalakis (husband of his wife's sister).

1922. End of January. Excursion with Sikelianos in Epidavros, Mycenae, Tirynthe, Argos. He enters into a contract with publisher D. Dimitrakos, to author a series of “Histories”⁵³(books for the teaching of History) for different levels of classes of elementary school. (K had already collaborated, in 1914, with his wife Galatea, in writing children’s books which bear her name.) Counting on a regular income from this project, he departs, through Belgrade, for Vienna, where he arrives on May 19.*
May 19-end of August. He stays in a boarding house Alserstrasse 26I, Wien IX. He gives his romance “A Year of Loneliness”⁵⁴ (which has been left unpublished) its final form, begins to write his metrical tragedy “Buddha”,⁵⁵ he plans out The Saviors of God.⁵⁶ During this time, he suffers from a peculiar dermatological affliction on his face, which his doctor, Dr Stekel, diagnoses as “masque de sexualité”. (In Christ Recrucified⁵⁷ Κ. will have, years later, Manolios suffering from the same affliction.) Compelled by this, he studies Freud and is initiated in Psychoanalysis.
The journal of Alexandreia Nea Zoe⁵⁸ publishes the tragedy “Odysseus”⁵⁹ (in June and November).
His wife moves their household to 1, Deinokratous Str.⁶⁰

September 1. K. settles in Berlin in a boarding house: 63, Lichterfelde West, Unter den Eichen. The Asia Minor Disaster shocks and distresses him. He joins in the fevered life of the impoverished and infuriated Germany. His old (aristocratic-nationalistic) convictions are shaken, he is enchanted by revolutionary theories: in Art, in thought, in action. He wants to absorb the spirit of his times and transmit it to Greece. With Demosthenes Danielidis, they explore the founding of a pioneering magazine: “Nova Graecia”.
October 2. At the Educational Reformers’ Convention (Œsterleich, Kawerau, Hilker) he is acquainted with a young Polish Jewish woman, Rahel Lipstein (to whom, in 1928, he dedicated his: “What I saw in Russia”)⁶¹. This acquaintance is intended to have some influence on the spiritual evolution of K. because R. introduces him to a circle consisting of revolutionized compatriots of hers. (I list here Itka Horowitz, Dina Matus and Rosa Schmulewitz.)
October 16-18. He attends a Convention on “Sexual Education” with D. Danielidis in Dresden.
October-December. He shreds the roughly 3.000 verses of “Buddha”⁶² in pieces and starts over in a new form: “something ferocious and bitter”. He learns Russian, with Loukas Kastanakis as his teacher. He meets Leo Shestov and Aleksey Remizov personally. He sends his tragedy “Herakles”⁶³ to Nea Zoe⁶⁴ of Alexandria, wanting to relieve himself of his old manuscripts.** End of December, he begins to write The Saviors of God⁶⁵.

* In his Letters to Galatea⁶⁶ the annotator –aside from his other errors– places the Vienna trip in 1921 and dates several letters incorrectly. The fact that K. sojourns in Vienna during the summer of ’22 is evident – apart from numerous other indications – by an excerpt of Letter 19: “On the day before yesterday, Rathenau was assassinated”. As it is known, R. was assassinated on June 24, 1922.

** It was not published. Still, does this text survive in the hands of an Egyptian scholar? An investigation aimed at those who may have inherited the archive of Nea Zoe would be worth conducting, because K. later destroyed the original.

1923. January-May. Berlin. Beginning of April he completes The Saviors of God⁶⁷ and takes up “Buddha” once again. His spirit’s new orientation makes him feel alienated from his old comrades: “I wrote to Sikelianos that our paths have changed”. Indeed, throughout the whole winter, he is consumed again and suffers from messianic longing. On Febr. 3 he notes in his notebook “1922-23”: “During my most critical religious moments, one woman was always with me (Gandria*, Berlin). Perhaps because my religious crises erupt upon female contact. And it is the identical, perennial woman, with the ephemeral individual masks, with different names, nations”.
June 1. He withdraws for repose at Dornburg village, near Jena, and resides at Gœtheschloss, half of which has been turned into a hostel. There, he is acquainted with Elsa (Elisabeth) Alexander Lange (to whom in 1928 he dedicated Christos⁶⁸).
June 15. Pilgrimage to Naumburg, Nietzche’s birthplace.
June 26-27. Weimar.
June 29. Returns to Berlin.
July 10-11. Again to Naumburg.
July 13-21. In Pustchow, bei Rewal, a small fishing village at the Baltic Sea (with Rahel Lipstein, Dina Matus and two more female friends of theirs).
July 26-August 8. Touring in Germany with Elsa Lange: Munich, Ulm, Rothenburg, Nüremberg, Bamberg, Rudolfstadt, Berlin.

November-beginning of December. His wife arrives from Athens and stays with him. After her departure for Greece, K. goes to Leipzig for two-three days, where he collaborates with Karl Dietrich in the translation of The Saviors of God.⁶⁹

* Gandria. Mediaeval village of Switzerland near Lugano. Κ. had stayed a few days in March and April of 1918 there together with Mudita. (See in this Timeline, year 1918.)

1924. January 1-18. Again in Dornburg, in Gœtheschloss. On the way, he stops once again in Naumburg: “My heart flattered, as I remembered the small corner house where Nietzsche was born, Weinbergstrasse”.
January 18. He departs for Italy.
January 2-February 21. Naples. Excursions in Pompeii.
February 22-25. Rome.
February 25-April 13. Assisi, at the manor of Contessa Enrichetta Pucci. Here he completes “Buddha”.⁷⁰ He is acquainted with the biographer of Saint Francis, Johannes Jœrgensen, and studies the legend of the “Pauper”.
April 13-29. Ravenna, Venice, Padua, Venice (with Elsa Lange).
April 29. He departs from Venice by train for Brindisi.
May 5-July 5. Athens, 1, Deinokratous Str. On May 18 he is introduced to Eleni Samiou during an excursion at Penteli-Rafina.
July 5. He departs alone for Heraklion, where his wife joins him on August 5. During this time he plans without success an unlawful political movement in Heraklion.
August 18-28. He summers at Lenta, a beach of Southern Crete, with Eleni Samiou. They read The Iliad, Aeschylus, Goethe’s Iphigenie, Shestov (according to K’s notebook.).
September 5. His wife returns to Athens. Κ. remains in Crete.
September-December. During these months, staying in the house of Georgiadis at the suburb Poros (near Heraklion), probably authors Symposium⁷¹ (yet unpublished, kept in the Historical Museum of Crete in Heraklion)⁷² and begins his Odyssey⁷³.
Excursions (Nov. 30, Dec. 6 and 7) with Lefteris Alexiou, Takis Kalmouchos, and Charilaos Stefanidis to the villages Archanes, Rogdia, Savathiana.