The Odyssey

Myth and Text: Readings in the Modern Greek Novel

“…This goes even beyond the 'realistic' motivation of the coming Passion play and extends to all the characters; the village elders unconsciously come to act the role of the Pharisees; Grigoris, the village priest, is imperceptibly edged by circumstances and temperament into the role of Caiaphas; the role of Pilate is unwittingly played to perfection, and with great humour on Kazantzakis' part, by the local Turkish aga, a good-natured easy-going pederast who ends by being driven to distraction by the incomprehensible antics of the Greeks around him, who, he says, 'would put horseshoes onto fleas'. The novel ends with Manolios, the Christ-figure, put to death in church at midnight on Christmas morning, as news arrives that Turkish troops are on the way to the village: it is the eve of the Asia Minor disaster and the expulsion of the Greek population from Anatolia (Kazantzakis 1954).…”