Galateia Kazantzaki

Galatea Kazantzakis (1881-1962). Galatea Alexiou was born in Heraklion, Crete, as the eldest daughter of the printer Stylianos Alexiou and Irini Zachariadi. She had three younger siblings: Radamanthys, Lefteris, and Elli. Her education was shaped by her family environment and her attendance at a French school. In 1911, she married Nikos Kazantzakis, and later, in a second marriage, she wed Markos Avgeris. Ideologically, she joined the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from a young age (around 1920) and was persecuted for her activities by the Metaxas dictatorship as well as the post-war government. She died following injuries from a car accident. Her literary debut was in 1906 with the prose work "Dictaeon Antron," published in the magazine Pinakothiki under the pseudonym Lalo de Kastro. This was followed by poems, translations, critical essays, plays, and studies in magazines such as Noumas, Nea Zoi, the Bulletin of the Educational Association, Grammata, Mavros Gatos, Anagennisi, Kritiki Stoa, and others, initially under her maiden name or pseudonyms, and after her first marriage, under the name Galatea Kazantzakis (from 1914), which she retained even after her divorce. In 1928, she took on the role of content editor for the Bulletin of Workers' Aid (a journalistic organ of the KKE), and in 1931, she became the editor-in-chief of the magazine Protoporoi. She later collaborated with the magazine Neoi Protoporoi and the newspaper Eleftheri Gnomi, where she published articles on social and political issues, while also giving lectures on educational and literary topics and publishing her prose works. Galatea Kazantzakis's literary explorations began in the realm of aestheticism (with clear influences from Nikos Kazantzakis) and gradually transitioned through the fields of ethnography and social commentary, leading her in 1933 with the novel "Women" to an attempt at socialist realism. During the German occupation and the civil war, she ventured into resistance literature with a strong humanitarian focus. Simultaneously, a gradual confrontation with Nikos Kazantzakis developed, culminating in her last book titled "People and Superhumans," which aimed at a demystifying (admittedly one-sided) portrayal of her former life partner. For more biographical details on Galatea Kazantzakis, see Argyriou Alex., "Kazantzakis Galatea," World Biographical Dictionary 4. Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1985, Tribute: Galatea Kazantzakis: In Memoriam. Athens, 1964, Kastrinaki Angela, "Galatea Kazantzakis," Our Older Prose: From Its Beginnings to the First World War I (1900-1914), pp. 422-446. Athens, Sokolis, 1997, and Mavroeidi-Papadaki Sophia, "Kazantzakis Galatea," Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature 7. Athens, Hari Patsi, n.d. (Source: Archive of Greek Writers, EKEBI).