Born in Athens in 1903 and died in 2004, Eleni Kazantzaki is best known for a lengthy biography of her husband, "Nikos Kazantzakis, the Uncompromising," based on his letters. It was first published in French in 1968.

In addition to being a journalist and author in her own right, she is credited with helping her husband with his manuscripts.

She retyped seven times his most ambitious work, the 33,333 verse poem "The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel," published in Greek in 1938 and in English in 1958. The work is divided into 24 rhapsodies.

She met Kazantzakis, 20 years her senior, in 1924 and the couple lived together for more than 20 years before marrying in 1945. They had no children, but she adopted a son, Patroklos Stavrou. After her husband's death, she moved from their home in the south of France to Geneva, where she promoted his works. She returned to Athens in 1989.