Before arriving at the Pedagogical Academy of Heraklion, we will stop at the burial site of N. Kazantzakis, a world famous intellect who left a historical inheritance to the land with the vigor of his spirit and his work, whom the students of the Academy have honored.
NIKO KAZANTZAKIS’ FIRST DAY AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
«I was like a small sacrificial victim weighted down with ornaments. Within me I felt both pride and fear, but my hand was wedged deeply in my father’s grasp, and I bore myself with manly courage. We marched and marched through the narrow lanes, reached Saint Minas’s, turned, and entered an old building with a wide courtyard. Four great rooms occupied the corners and a dust covered plane tree the middle. I hesitated, turning coward, my hand had begun to tremble in the large warm palm. Bending over, my father touched my hair and patted me:
-You’re going to learn to read and write here so you can become a man.
At this point the teacher appeared, with a long switch in his hand, he seemed a savage
- This is my son, my father said.
- Untangling my hand from his own, he turned me over to the teacher.
- His bones are mine, his flesh is yours. Don’t feel sorry for him. Thrash him and make a man of him.
- Don’t worry, Captain Michael,’ said the teacher, pointing to his switch. ‘Right here is the tool which makes men. » (N. Kazantzakis, Report to Greco)
He was a man passionate about life, a citizen of the world, traveler and inquisitive spirit, restless. He loved man and put him above all, he didn’t hesitate to go against the social establishment of his day and fight to defend his ideas. He was persecuted many times for his beliefs. For such a soul that was not accustomed to fitting in, it would not be appropriate to be buried in a different location but in that which is stated in the phrase: “Beyond the mind, on the edge of the heart's holy precipice, I proceed, trembling. One foot grips the secure soil, the other gropes in the darkness above the abyss.” (N. Kazantzakis, THE SAVIOURS OF GOD)
