Did Zorba the Greek borrow a section from Don Quixote?

I watched Zorba the Greek last night; I am currently re-reading Don Quixote (actually creating a paragraph-by-paragraph Spanish/English edition).

Is the scene from Zorba the Greek where the beautiful shepherdess is lusted after by all the men in the village, and then hated by them because she rejects them all, taken from Don Quixote, or is the similarity just a "coincidence"?

plot-explanation zorba-the-greek

Best Answer

I think it's very likely the scene was intended to relate to the book.

The film, as you probably know, is based on the Nikos Kazantzakis book of the same name, with the narrator meeting Alexis Zorba and learning life changing things from him.

In many ways this echoes Don Quixote, only with the roles of "Don Quixote" and "Sancho Panza" reversed. Kazantzakis was certainly aware of Don Quixote, using the name as an alias in his colossal poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.

Given the fact both scenes are so similar, there's certainly enough evidence to logically suggest that the scene was more than just coincidence and was intended to pay homage to the great Cervantes novel.