In June 1948 the Kazantzakis couple settled in Antibes on the Côte d’Azur, where they bought their own house in 1954.

Kazantzakis devoted himself to writing: though he completed his translation of Homer’s Iliad and set to work on the Odyssey, wrote plays and collaborated with Kimon Friar on the English translation of his own Odyssey, novel writing was his main preoccupation.

It was at this time that he wrote almost all of his novels, with which he gained a worldwide following.