October 1925 marked the beginning of a lengthy period in which Kazantzakis travelled the globe. On every journey he gathered images, ideas and experiences which he incorporated into the subsequent reworking of the Odyssey.

By 1933 he had visited the Soviet Union and Spain three times. He also travelled to Italy, Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt and the Sinai Desert, and stayed for extended periods at Gottesgab in Czechoslovakia.

His travels and intensive work helped him to endure the death of his parents in 1932. He worked at a feverish pace, writing film scripts and poetry, composing plays and drawing up novels in French, compiling encyclopaedias, dictionaries and schoolbooks, contributing to Greek and Russian newspapers and translating major works of literature as well as children’s books.

Kazantzakis planned political and literary activism with the Greek-Romanian author Panait Istrati, in whom he believed he had found yet another spiritual companion. Lastly, his meeting with Prevelakis was to grant him a faithful friend and dedicated disciple.