Greek Passion

Like his The Last Temptation of Christ, literary master Nikos Kazantzakis's The Greek Passion is a daring exploration of the pitfalls of a religion as it is practiced by its all-too-human followers. The tiny Greek village of Lycovrisi is planning its annual Passion play when its customary tranquility is ruptured by the arrival of a group of starved refugees from a village destroyed by the Turks. The refugees, led by a righteous priest named Father Fotis, beg for assistance from the villagers of Lycovrisi, but are turned away by the domineering village elders, who each have their particular reasons for refusing to help. As tensions grow among the villagers of Lycovrisi, their elders, and the outsiders, each person in turn will be forced to reckon with his sins and seek his own path to salvation.

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Crete in 1883. He studied literature and art in Germany and Italy, philosophy under Henri Bergson in Paris and received his law degree from the University of Athens. The Greek Minster of Education in 1945, Kazantzakis was also a dramatist, translator, poet, and travel writer. Among his most famous works are, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Saviors of God. He died in October 1957.