Maka Eradze

The Image of Mary Magdalene in the novels of N. Kazantzakis

(The Last Temptation and Christ Recrusified)

(Paper presented at a conference, 2003)

N. Kazantzakis deals with the traditional literary images in a way that they appear in a
new perspective to us. My aim in this work is to examine the image of Mary Magdalene based
on these two novels of N. Kazantzakis; to examine what was added to this biblical image by the
author.

First of all, I would like to underline, that I am not going to examine Christian dogmatic
teachings, nor the image of Mary of the gospels, but the literary image of Kazantzakis itself. To
determine why does the author bring to front such a fragile imagery in his works. The
complexity of the problem brought many discussions to the topic. While examining the
question, I consider N. Kazantzakis as a write and as a philosopher.

In the novel Christ Recrusified we only have a conditional image of Mary Magdalene,
however, this conditional image fits very well into the image described in the Christian
tradition. In this novel everlasting, reoccurring mystery takes place in the souls of the ordinary
people, just like it happens in the human hypostasis of Christ in The Last Temptation. But here,
Mary Magdalene is former fianc of Christ, he experiences a certain kind of passion, more than
that Christ is the main reason of Mary being a prostitute. Kazantzakis idea of this interesting
kind of relationship between Christ and Mary served as a basis of the further examination (not
originally the idea of N.Kazantzakis).

Where does this idea of romantic relationship between Christ and Mary Magdalene
come from? I am going to give a short excursus on the history of each aspect of Mary
Magdalene appearance in literature.

Who was Mary Magdalene and what do we know about her?

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In the gospels we have several references to the woman, where we can recognize Mary
Magdalene:

A possessed woman, that Christ expelled seven demons from;

A woman, that witnessed crucifixion;
A woman that witnessed Christs funeral
A woman that perfumed incenses to Christ;
A woman that was the first one to see Christ after resurrection.

All these episodes described in the gospels we also meet in The Last Temptation (with
the slight changes of literary kind).

In The Philippe Gospel of Nag Hamad library it is said, that Mary was a companion and a
spouse of Jesus. Lord was always followed by three women Mary his mother, his sister and
Mary the Magdalene, the one that was named as his Companion. Mary was the name of all the
three women

Christ loved Mary Magdalene most of all the disciples. And the disciples would ask:
Why do you love her more than us? Jesus would answer: Why? When a blind and a sighted
see each other in the dark, they do not differ. But when the light comes, the sighted will see the
light, while the blind will be left in the dark.

This episode gives many interpretation possibilities. Right before, in this text there is a
reference to Mary Magdalene personified idea of Sofia.

In Gnostic teachings, where everything was defined in pairs, is Mary Magdalene had a
place right to Christs side. Just as in the Ancient philosophy systems, where the initial state of
the human kind was an Androgen. i

Mary Magdalene has the Gnosis which is only individually transmitted from human to
human and not on the Eucharist basis. According to this teaching, many Gnostic theories had
roots in Mary Magdalene, based on the fact that Jesus had shared many mysteries with her.ii
(Two fundamental ideas of Christianity are rejected in Gnosticism: 1. an individuum is neither

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the owner nor transmitter of the mystery and 2. By bringing mystery element into the
Christianity there occurs the connection with antiquity, with its mythological hierarchy pattern).
In Last Temptetion there is an allusion that Mary Magdalene holds the Knowledge (). But
its not clear what kind of knowledge is that: Mary feels that Jesus is immortal (Last Temptation,
page 382, 400) and that his physical decay doesnt predict the end of his essence. But there is
the hint from Kazantzakis himself: the knowledge held by Mary is her womanly nature her
heart. Thats exactly the knowledge of hers.

There is also a very characteristic pattern for Mary Magdalene. She is always described
or illustrated as a blond. In Middle Ages, long and loose hair on women was perceived as the
attribute to virgin or prostitute.iii In the novels of Kazantzakis there are two different Maries
one that appears as Katerina, the widow with long, blond hair, stressing her traditional idea of
that of the Gospels. The color is always accented. This is The Repentant Mary Magdalene.

In Last Temptation Magdalene is black-haired. The image of Mary gets generalized,

gradually acquiring the characteristics of the earth, her hair color is connected to the color of a
ground, a soil. She is the seductive earth: black is the opposite of white, which purely expresses
everything that is divine. In most of the religions or mythologies black color is understood as
devilry. Black also confronts white for Pythagoreans, where the opposite concepts are lined up
opposite:

Limit / limitlessness

Odd/even

Entity/plurality

Light/Dark

White/black

Man/womaniv

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Also, in many religions and philosophies woman is bounded to the fertility, to the cult of
earth. This is how woman is inseparable from the element of earth.

There was a tradition of painting the Ancient temples:v distinguishing horizontal and
vertical lines. Vertical lines where connected to the masculine arche and painted in blue, while
the horizontal ones to the feminine ache and were painted in red. Here we can see the
intersection.

Mary Magdalenes literary idea of Kazantzakis is not the repentant harlot, but the
general image of the feminine principle (Arche), which is also a part of Jesus. This image
represents horizontal earthly symbol of the contradictory entity of Androgen. Now the question
is whether this is a harmonious completeness or it has conflicts in the essence? The concept of
savior in Gnosticism is as such: salvation comes through the negation of feminine arche, and
androgenity was the unity of dualistic conflict of man and woman.vi (in the Setian or Barbelotian
systems. See: Casadio 1989 (1997). Jesus denies Mary Magdalene thus denying feminine and
earthly arche, but there is a promise that he saves Mary.

In Androgen monadic systems there is an ultimate anticipation, where after God

incarnates in human, feminine part falls down to the earth which enables her to unite to her
Spouse masculine savior. vii

There is a relative dualism in Kazantzakis Last Temptation. In this work Mary is

presented as an earthly horizontal arche, which is supposedly connected to the vertical, divine
arche of Christ. We could also discuss the issue of the gender of Christ.

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References

i . .29

ii 3. . . . 41

iii , , .;; 1999; 100

v . . . ..67

vi .Chiara Ombretta Tommassi Moreschini, Androgynous Divinities in Classic and Christian Antiquity, Phasis, 2000, pp.284

vii Chiara Ombretta Tommassi Moreschini, Androgynous Divinities in Classic and Christian Antiquity, Phasis, 2000, pp.286