Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης) was a Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet, and philosopher, born on March 2, 1883, and passed away on October 26, 1957. Widely regarded as a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years, making him the most translated Greek author worldwide.

Among his most notable works are Zorba the Greek (published in 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950, translated as Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). These novels, along with plays, travel books, memoirs, and philosophical essays such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises, contributed to his fame, especially in the English-speaking world through cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Kazantzakis also translated a number of notable works into Modern Greek, including the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Origin of Species, and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.