Chapter 2 Summary

The comrades sail on the Aegean Sea toward Crete. As Zorba looks in wonder at two dolphins leaping near the boat, the narrator notices that his eccentric is missing half of one finger. Zorba explains that he cut it off because the finger got in the way of his pottery. The speaker is awed by Zorba's passion, but warns him that this tendency may lead to the frenzied removal of other body parts - like the sexual organs. Zorba grows furious, and denies that there's any danger of his committing such an act.

Retiring to his cabin, the narrator reads from The Dialogue of Buddha and the Shepherd, which emphasizes the virtue of possessing nothing. When he wakes, the ship has docked on Crete, and Zorba describes his adventures on the island when he was young. He speaks of the many wars and...