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Eleni Ν. Kazantzakis, (maiden name Samiou), was orphaned at age 15. Her father’s origins can be traced in Asia Minor and her mother’s in Crete. Her father, Konstantinos Samios, was an executive officer at the Ministry of Agriculture. The pine-planting of Ardittos Hill in Athens was his personal accomplishment.
Eleni and Nikos met on May 18, 1924. She was 21 years old, and he was 41. The famous pianist Marika Papaioannou had encouraged Eleni to attend a gathering of intellectuals at Dexameni on that particular day, where she would meet Nikos Kazantzakis, an already renowned author. Even though she felt reluctant at first, Eleni went.

It was love at first sight for both. A few years later, Nikos Kazantzakis himself would encourage his loyal Cypriot friend Aimilios Hourmouzios to meet Marika Papaioannou, assuming the role of matchmaker. Both matches ended in marriage, and the two couples were united in friendship for life. Nikos and Eleni Kazantzakis had lived together for approximately twenty years before November 11, 1945, when they married at the Church of Saint Georgios Karitsis in Athens. His best man was his friend Angelos Sikelianos and Eleni’s bridesmaid, his wife Anna. Nikos and Eleni were living in Aegina at the time, but made frequent trips abroad, until they finally settled in Antibes in Southern France.

Eleni, an author herself, sacrificed her own writing on the altar of her unconditional love for Nikos. Her greatest literary accomplishment is considered the biography of Nikos Kazantzakis, based on her intimate knowledge of him and his work, on unpublished texts and letters, entitled Nikos Kazantzakis: A Biography Based on his Letters.¹ It was originally published in the French language (Paris, 1968), in English (London and New York, 1968), in German (1972), in Spanish (1974), in Greek (1977), in Hungarian (1979), in Romanian (1981). On December 29, 1979, the supreme academic institution for letters, the Arts and Sciences in Greece, the Academy of Athens, awarded Eleni N. Kazantzakis for this exceptional literary accomplishment.

Eleni also authored “Mahatma Ghandi: A saintly life”,² (a book not yet translated in English), which was first published in French (Paris and Switzerland, 1934), in Spanish (Chile, 1936) and in Greek (Athens, 1983). She also wrote a book about the Greek-Romanian author Panait Istrati, and a book on her impressions of China, entitled: “China, a small tour in the Great Land”,³(not yet translated in English) which was originally printed in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1976 at a printing office located on the borders of the Green Line⁴.

Nonetheless, during their life together, she had assumed the role of his personal secretary, transcribing all of Nikos’s manuscripts on her small portable typewriter. She typed seven times the entirety of Nikos Kazantzakis’s epic poem The Odyssey, which consists of no less than 33.333 verses. Valuing her bright intellect deeply, he would show her all that he wrote and would listen to her ideas and suggestions.

After her husband’s death in October 26, 1957 in Freiburg, Germany, unable to continue living in a house so filled with memories of her Nikos, she left Antibes and settled in Geneva. Her apartment became a destination for literary pilgrimages from across the world of those who loved and appreciated the work of Nikos Kazantzakis, but also, a safe haven for people persecuted by the Greek junta. In 1968, she made her apartment available to anti-regime advocates in need of temporary lodging before they testified at the Human Rights Commission of the European Council in Strasbourg.

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A staunch critic of totalitarian regimes, Eleni was persecuted by the military dictatorship of Greece. From 1967-1974, the seven years of the Reign of Terror of the junta, unable to enter Greece, Eleni made Patroclos and Mary Stavrou’s house in Cyprus her second home. In the spring of 1972, Mary, expecting a child, went to Geneva to stay with Eleni for the duration of her pregnancy to ensure a healthy and uneventful term in the peaceful environment she could provide. Eleni had already expressed the wish to name the child “Nikos” and become “his” godmother. Niki was born on November 7, 1972. The first home she ever knew was Eleni’s apartment in Geneva and on August 3, 1973, Eleni christened Niki at St. John’s Cathedral in Nicosia, Cyprus. The baptism was officiated by Archbishop Makarios, President of the Republic of Cyprus at the time, and was also attended by the family’s dear friend, Nobel Laureate Odysseas Elytis.

On July 15, 1974, the coup d’etat organized by the Greek junta against the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, and the subsequent Turkish Invasion of July 20, 1974, found Eleni, Mary and little Niki sojourning in Kyrenia, at “Pente Mili”, the point of the invasion. They were captured and detained by the Turkish soldiers as prisoners of war. Their escape was made possible by British helicopters, dispatched to the site to evacuate foreign nationals from the invaded territories.

After the Turkish invasion, to aid the Cypriot cause, Eleni had her books printed in Nicosia, at the Zavallis printing house, as well as several of Nikos Kazantzakis’s books, edited by Patroclos Stavrou. Eleni made considerable donations to the victims of the Cypriot tragedy and contributed financially to the restoration of the icons and works of Art of the Archbishopric of Cyprus which had sustained damages during the coup d’etat. Revenues from the sales of the books of Nikos Kazantzakis were offered as relief to the families of political prisoners during the anti-dictatorship struggle and to victims of the Cypriot tragedy, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Nikos and Eleni Kazantzakis had loved Cyprus dearly. Nikos Kazantzakis devoted numerous pages and references in his work about the beautiful island. They visited it together for the first time in May 1926, but, unfortunately, Nikos had been unable to revisit it, as he so desired. In fact, he once thought of making Cyprus his permanent residence.

Eleni delivered numerous lectures at universities and other educational institutions around the world and frequently gave interviews for radio and television broadcasts about Kazantzakis, Greece and the Cyprus cause. Drake University in De Moines, Iowa, conferred on her a doctorate degree, honoris causa, on Humane Letters, on May 18, 1974. In 1983, for the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Nikos Kazantzakis, she and her adopted son Patroclos Stavrou toured the entire United States from one coast to the other, and spoke in universities and various other institutions. In October of that same year, at the State University of San Francisco, Eleni and Chia-Wei Woo, President of the University, inaugurated the Nikos Kazantzakis Chair; the inaugural speech was delivered by Patroclos Stavrou.

Eleni lived in Geneva until 1989. On February 12 of the same year, she suffered a terrible motor accident at William Favre Avenue, where her apartment was located. Patroclos and Mary rushed to Switzerland, to the Geneva University Clinic, where she was hospitalized, to be by her side; they never left her since. On May 1st, 1989, Eleni came to Athens to live in Voula with Patroclos, Mary and Niki.

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Nikos and Eleni had never been able to have children of their own. Even though this fact deeply distressed Eleni, she often used to say that she had never regretted two things in her life: the one was marrying Nikos Kazantzakis, the other, adopting Patroclos Stavrou. Her only regret was that her Nikos did not have the chance to meet her adopted son.

The wife and life companion of Nikos Kazantzakis closed her eyes forever on February 18, 2004, 101 years old, on the day of Nikos Kazantzakis’s birthday. Her memory lives strong in her last residence and her legacy remains alive in the people who loved and cherished her.