
Freedom & Death is Kazantzakis's modern Iliad The context is Crete in the late nineteenth century the epic struggle between Greeks & Turks between Christianity & Islam A new uprising takes place to rival those of 1854 1866 & 1878 & the island is thrown into confusion yet again In the village of Megalokastro a Cretan resistance fighter Captain Michales is matched by the Turkish bey his blood-brother The life of the local community continues shakily but is disrupted by explosions of violence