{"id":27453,"date":"2014-12-04T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T17:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27453"},"modified":"2014-12-03T22:45:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T09:45:05","slug":"the-alchemy-of-alcibiades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/12\/04\/the-alchemy-of-alcibiades\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alchemy of Alcibiades"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are some historical figures and periods that just seem to attract historical fiction.<\/p>\n

One of these characters is the Athenian politician and general, Alcibiades, and the period of the Peloponnesian War—the conflict between the Greek states Athens and Sparta, from 431-404 BC., including Athens ill-fated expedition against Syracuse.<\/p>\n

Alcibiades was a charismatic and polarising figure, both the darling and daemon of his native Athens and his era, who switched sides several times between Athens, Sparta, and Persia. He undoubtedly stood at the cusp of significant events, but I still find it interesting that neither other figures of the time, such as Lysander or Xenophon in the same era, or Parmenion in the succeeding generation, attract the same level of interest.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I am just fascinated that nearly 2500 years on, the alchemy of Alcibiades still retains its allure. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

At any rate, a quick look along my shelves reveals the following works which all feature Alcibiades as a central figure, four in the context of the Peloponnesian War (the exception is Plato’s Symposium<\/em><\/strong>):<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/a>The Flowers Of Adonis<\/strong> <\/em>by Rosemary Sutcliff<\/p>\n

“The 5th Century BC. The Greek city-states are engaged in perpetual war. But one man towers above the chaos. His name is Alkibiades. He is at once a pirate, statesman and seducer whose adventures rival those of Odysseus himself…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Last<\/a>The Last Of The Wine<\/em> <\/strong>by Mary Renault<\/p>\n

“The story of Alexias, a young Athenian from a good family who gets drawn in to the controversial teachings of Socrates and a participates in the Olympic Games — all set against the background of famine, siege and civil conflict.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"road<\/a>The Road To Sardis<\/strong><\/em> by Stephanie Plowman<\/p>\n

“Lycius, a young Athenian and cousin to Alcibiades, participates in the final struggles and defeat of his city during the Peloponnesian War.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Symposium\"<\/a>The Symposium<\/strong><\/em> by Plato<\/p>\n

“In the <\/em>Symposium, Plato recounts a drinking party following an evening meal, where the guests include the poet Aristophanes, the drunken Alcibiades, and, of course, the wise Socrates. The revelers give their views on the timeless topics of love and desire…”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tides<\/a>Tides Of War<\/strong><\/em> by Steven Pressfield<\/p>\n

“Alcibiades – mercurial soldier and charismatic commander without peer on land and sea, a man whom fortune always favoured. Raised as a ward of Pericles, later a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Socrates, and compared to Achilles by the adoring Athenian masses, he was to become the key figure in the Peloponnesian War – the tumultuous 27-year civil war between Athens and Sparta…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This is just a very small sample, though: if you go online you’ll quickly see there are many more “qualifying works.” \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are some historical figures and periods that just seem to attract historical fiction. One of these characters is the Athenian politician and general, Alcibiades, and the period of the Peloponnesian War—the conflict between the Greek states Athens and Sparta, from 431-404 BC., including Athens ill-fated expedition against Syracuse. Alcibiades was a charismatic and polarising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funstuff","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27453"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27463,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27453\/revisions\/27463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}