O IIρωτομαστορας la primera tragedia de Nikos Kazantzakis

Abstract

After some general thoughts on Kazantzakis' theatre, with special attention to his early dramas, the author analyzes the most relevant features of the Protomastoras, published in 1910 under the title of The Sacrifice. She stresses how young Kazantzakis uses a popular ballad, a dimotiko tragudi, which makes this play uncommon within his theatrical works. The motive present in the ballad The Bridge of River Arta is the sacrifice of a woman, which is demanded by the river to strengthen the bridge built by the foreman, which keeps crumbling once and again. This motive constitutes the core of Kazantzakis' drama. The protagonist, the foreman, is punished for his hybris, the arrogant idea of his superiority, through the sacrifice of his beloved as a condition for his work, the bridge, to be definitively strengthened. Severalfeatures which will repeatedly appear in his later dramas are present in this early tragedy: the feeling of the hero's own superiority; the idea of love as sin and weakness; the portrayal of woman as an obstacle to the improvement of the hero and his work or mission; despair as the apex of pain and freedom.