Plot

In general terms this work follows the final books of Homer's Odyssey, though its debt to Hauptmann's Bow of Odysseus has also been pointed out. Odysseus returns to Ithaca after an absence of twenty years, on the day Penelope has decided to marry the man who can draw her husband's bow. His return fills him with disappointment - Ithaca is impoverished and debased, Penelope is hankering after another man and Telemachus is longing to free himself of his father's shadow.

Odysseus decides to fight for his rights nonetheless. He appears at the palace as an unrecognisable old man, in the company of Eumaeus and Telemachus, who are unaware of his true identity. The suitors are revelling in anticipation of the contest, paying no heed to Phemius' premonitions. They scorn the stranger, who relates fanciful adventures to them and speaks enigmatically. When each of them in turn fails the trial with the bow, the stranger casts off his rags and draws the bow, revealing himself as Odysseus.

Writing history

Written in late 1915. Kazantzakis translated it into French while in Paris in 1948.

Greek editions

  • A. Geranos [=N. Kazantzakis], Odiseas, Nea Zoi (Alexandria), vol. (June and November 1922) 1-41, 91-149
  • N. Kazantzakis, Odisseas, Athens: Stochastis 1928 - dedicated to Lenotschka Dybouk [= Eleni Samios]
  • N. Kazantzakis, Tragodies I. Tragodies me archea themata. Promitheas, Kouros, Odisseas, Melissa, edited by E. C. Kasdaglis, Athens: Difros 1955
  • N. Kazantzakis, Tragodies I. Tragodies me archea themata. Promitheas, Kouros, Odisseas, Melissa, Athens: Eleni Kazantzakis 1964 - and subsequent editions; the one published in 1998, edited by Patroklos Stavrou, is a reprint of the 1955 edition
  • Apo to piitiko ergo tou N. Kazantzaki, with a prologue by Manolis Karellis. Introduction, selection and notes by Stylianos Alexiou, illustrations by N. Chatzikyriakos-Gikas, Heraklion, Crete: Municipality of Crete 1977 - an anthology of excerpts.

Foreign editions & translations

  • Nikos Kazantzakis, Teatro. I. Odiseo, Juliano, Niceforo, Kapodistria, translated into Spanish with an introduction and notes by M. Castillo Didier, prologue by Fotios Malleros K., Santiago (Chile): Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Centro de Estudios Bizantinos y Neohelénicos 1978
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, From Odysseus. A Drama, translated into English by Marios Byron Raizis, The Literary Review vol. 16, issue 3 (1973) - an excerpt