The Twin Soul of Alexander

The Twin Soul of Alexander PDF Author: Lawrence M. Scheier
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781542360616
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
While many books, fiction and nonfiction alike, chronicle Alexander the Great's ascension to power and conquest of the ancient world, few go back to Alexander's early adulthood. In this vividly written and thoroughly researched novel, Lawrence Scheier explores Alexander's early years through the eyes of the renowned leader's best friend and lover, Hephaestion. Scheier's fictional biography is full of political intrigue, family treachery, and enticing romance. Do not waste the opportunity! The words of Hephaestion's father ring in his ears when he first approaches the young Alexander in the Macedonian capital of Pella. Hephaestion hopes to use his father's relationship with King Philip to be appointed as one of Alexander's royal companions. Hephaestion quickly becomes entangled in the complex politics of the royal family. Queen Olympias, Alexander's mother, gives him the position in exchange for his loyalty to Alexander and asks him seduce her son. Hephaestion realizes that he is being used a pawn in the twisted game between the king and queen. Hephaestion must make difficult choices to stop Alexander from being sacrificed on the altar of his parents' dysfunction. At the same time, Hephaestion must confront his own feelings for the prince and the dangerous consequences of Alexander's ambition.

The Twin Soul of Alexander

The Twin Soul of Alexander PDF Author: Lawrence M. Scheier
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781542360616
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
While many books, fiction and nonfiction alike, chronicle Alexander the Great's ascension to power and conquest of the ancient world, few go back to Alexander's early adulthood. In this vividly written and thoroughly researched novel, Lawrence Scheier explores Alexander's early years through the eyes of the renowned leader's best friend and lover, Hephaestion. Scheier's fictional biography is full of political intrigue, family treachery, and enticing romance. Do not waste the opportunity! The words of Hephaestion's father ring in his ears when he first approaches the young Alexander in the Macedonian capital of Pella. Hephaestion hopes to use his father's relationship with King Philip to be appointed as one of Alexander's royal companions. Hephaestion quickly becomes entangled in the complex politics of the royal family. Queen Olympias, Alexander's mother, gives him the position in exchange for his loyalty to Alexander and asks him seduce her son. Hephaestion realizes that he is being used a pawn in the twisted game between the king and queen. Hephaestion must make difficult choices to stop Alexander from being sacrificed on the altar of his parents' dysfunction. At the same time, Hephaestion must confront his own feelings for the prince and the dangerous consequences of Alexander's ambition.

Memories of Hephaestion

Memories of Hephaestion PDF Author: A R Valeson
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This historical fiction is inspired by fragments from the life of Alexander the Great which tell of the life-long devotion between the Macedonian conqueror and his general, Hephaestion. This tale seeks to explore the deep relationship between the two heroes, as seen through the eyes of Hephaestion -- a bond which longs to echo the Homeric legends of Patroclus and Achilles. The author draws on research and imagination to transport the reader to the Macedonia court of 4th century B.C, telling a coming of age story full of struggle, romance and ambition.

Fire from Heaven

Fire from Heaven PDF Author: Mary Renault
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480432873
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
New York Times Bestseller and Man Booker Prize Finalist: A novel of ancient Greece by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” Alexander the Great stands alone as a leader and strategist, and Fire from Heaven is Mary Renault’s unsurpassed dramatization of the formative years of his life. His parents fight for their precocious son’s love: On one side, his volatile father, Philip, and on the other, his overbearing mother, Olympias. The story tells of the conqueror’s two great bonds—to his horse, Oxhead, and to his dearest friend and eventual lover, Hephaistion—and of the army he commands when he is barely an adult. Coming of age during the battles for southern Greece, Alexander the Great appears in all of his colors—as the man who first takes someone’s life at age twelve and who swiftly eliminates his rivals as soon as he comes to power—and emerges as a captivating, complex, larger-than-life figure. Fire from Heaven is the first volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which continues with The Persian Boy and Funeral Games. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. “Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.” —Hilary Mantel

The Persian Boy

The Persian Boy PDF Author: Mary Renault
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480432377
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 818

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Book Description
A New York Times–bestselling novel of the ancient king of Macedon and his lover by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” The Persian Boy centers on the most tempestuous years of Alexander the Great’s life, as seen through the eyes of his lover and most faithful attendant, Bagoas. When Bagoas is very young, his father is murdered and he is sold as a slave to King Darius of Persia. Then, when Alexander conquers the land, he is given Bagoas as a gift, and the boy is besotted. This passion comes at a time when much is at stake—Alexander has two wives, conflicts are ablaze, and plots on the Macedon king’s life abound. The result is a riveting account of a great conqueror’s years of triumph and, ultimately, heartbreak. The Persian Boy is the second volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which also includes Fire from Heaven and Funeral Games. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. “Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.” —Hilary Mantel

Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander

Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander PDF Author: Paul Cartledge
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 0299232832
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The charismatic Alexander the Great of Macedon (356–323 B.C.E.) was one of the most successful military commanders in history, conquering Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, central Asia, and the lands beyond as far as Pakistan and India. Alexander has been, over the course of two millennia since his death at the age of thirty-two, the central figure in histories, legends, songs, novels, biographies, and, most recently, films. In 2004 director Oliver Stone’s epic film Alexander generated a renewed interest in Alexander the Great and his companions, surroundings, and accomplishments, but the critical response to the film offers a fascinating lesson in the contentious dialogue between historiography and modern entertainment. This volume brings together an intriguing mix of leading scholars in Macedonian and Greek history, Persian culture, film studies, classical literature, and archaeology—including some who were advisors for the film—and includes an afterword by Oliver Stone discussing the challenges he faced in putting Alexander’s life on the big screen. The contributors scrutinize Stone’s project from its inception and design to its production and reception, considering such questions as: Can a film about Alexander (and similar figures from history) be both entertaining and historically sound? How do the goals of screenwriters and directors differ from those of historians? How do Alexander’s personal relationships—with his mother Olympias, his wife Roxane, his lover Hephaistion, and others—affect modern perceptions of Alexander? Several of the contributors also explore reasons behind the film’s tepid response at the box office and subsequent controversies.

Ptolemy I

Ptolemy I PDF Author: Ian Worthington
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190202351
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
When Rome defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra and annexed Egypt, the rule of the longest-lived of the Hellenistic dynasties and one of the most illustrious in Egyptian history came to an end. For nearly three hundred years, the Macedonian dynasty known as the Ptolemaic had controlled Egypt and its mixed population of Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, and Jews. The founder of this dynasty, Ptolemy I (367-283/2 BC), was a boyhood friend and eventually personal bodyguard of Alexander the Great, who fought alongside Alexander in the epic battles that toppled the Persian Empire, and brought about a Macedonian Empire stretching from Greece to India. After Alexander's death, his senior staff carved up his vast empire, with Ptolemy gaining control of Egypt. There he built up his power base in Egypt, introduced administrative and economic reforms that made his family fabulously wealthy, and by extending Egypt's possessions overseas founded an Egyptian Empire. In addition to his political and military prowess, Ptolemy was an intellectual, who patronized the mathematician Euclid, wrote an important account of Alexander's campaign in Asia, and established the famous Library and Museum at Alexandria, which were the cultural heart of the entire Hellenistic Age. Ptolemy ruled Egypt until he died of natural causes in his early eighties. Ian Worthington's Ptolemy I--the first full-length biography of its kind in English--traces the life of Ptolemy from his boyhood to his reign as king and pharaoh of Egypt. Throughout, he highlights the achievements that profoundly shaped both Egypt's history and that of the early Hellenistic world. He argues that Ptolemy was by far the greatest of Alexander's Successors, and that he was a conscious imperialist who even boldly attempted to seize Greece and Macedonia, and be a second Alexander.

Before Eternity

Before Eternity PDF Author: Stefan Pride
Publisher: Stefan Pride
ISBN: 9780615554969
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Gay erotic male bonding at its best! Welcome to Hephaestions world. Twenty-three centuries ago the second most powerful man in the world chose life as a vampire to the uncertainty of death. His lover was none other than Alexander the Great. Legend has it that they were one soul inhabiting two bodies. Before Eternity, Volume One introduces the reader to the whimsical vampire, as he introduces the writer of his chronicles (the little known Stefan Pride), his friends in present day Boston, and recounts his life with Alexander and the beautiful youth Aristenes, their adopted son, before he was turned into an immortal by the mysterious Quermen. Afflicted with AADD, his narration is at times historically accurate, often funny, sporadically sad, and peppered with some of the most visual inspiring homo-erotic stories to ever disgrace a page.

Alexander and Hephaestion

Alexander and Hephaestion PDF Author: Michael Hone
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781727617450
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
This is a story of love and devotion that had its origin before the walls of mighty Troy, a thousand years previously, as told in the Iliad, Homer's epic poem dedicated to Achilles and Patroclus, later enshrined in the lives of Alexander and Hephaestion, Hephaestion at rest at Amphipolis, Alexander at Alexandria, where he lies, to this very day, under unknown sands. The book is a historical work based on witnesses alive during the time of Alexander and Hephaestion--Callisthenes, Theopompus and Demosthenes--as well as those historians who came later--Plutarch, Arrian, Justin among others. Although homoerotic sexuality between Greeks will be fully covered in this book in general, and that between Alexander and Hephaestion in particular, the Sources will always be indicated as proof of no invented eroticism, because what we know about their shared love is amply sufficient. There will be no dissections of Alexander's battles, as specialists, many with years of military and tactical experience, have written their own books, although no detail of historical significance will be omitted, especially those concerning the interactions of the lives of individuals. Cicero stated that he could make no claim to originality, but that his life's purpose was to popularize the genius of others. This is exactly my aim in the writing of this book, through the exploration of the narrow window the past offers us. Because I want the book to be read by a large audience, especially the young, I've priced the paper edition at the lowest cost permitted by the editors.

The History of Alexander

The History of Alexander PDF Author: Quintus Curtius Rufus
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141914343
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), who led the Macedonian army to victory in Egypt, Syria, Persia and India, was perhaps the most successful conqueror the world has ever seen. Yet although no other individual has attracted so much speculation across the centuries, Alexander himself remains an enigma. Curtius' History offers a great deal of information unobtainable from other sources of the time. A compelling narrative of a turbulent era, the work recounts events on a heroic scale, detailing court intrigue, stirring speeches and brutal battles - among them, those of Macedonia's great war with Persia, which was to culminate in Alexander's final triumph over King Darius and the defeat of an ancient and mighty empire. It also provides by far the most plausible and haunting portrait of Alexander we possess: a brilliantly realized image of a man ruined by constant good fortune in his youth.

The Lion's Cub

The Lion's Cub PDF Author: L M Zorn
Publisher: L M Zorn
ISBN: 0473560267
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Alexandros, a prince of Macedon, has been a pawn in his parents’ battle for power from his earliest memories. His whole life in the cut-throat world of the royal court has been spent walking the knife edge of their warring demands, balancing his duty to King Philippos’ legacy with his obligations to his mother Olympias and her fierce ambitions, rarely seen as a person in his own right. While tending his horse, he has a chance encounter with Hephaistion, a boy from the back hills who says exactly what he thinks and who sees Alexandros in a way no one else ever has. Hephaistion arrived for training at the Royal Page School in Pella with one goal: to make his father proud. But the maddening boy he unceremoniously meets on Pella’s training fields turns Hephaistion's world upside down. Alexandros is exceptional in every way, and unlike anyone he has ever met before, and their close friendship drags Hephaistion into the world of the royal court where intrigue, infighting, and politics put their lives on the line. Hephaistion is unprepared to find himself so close to the heart of the royal household, and Alexandros is reluctant to put his complete trust in anyone after growing up surrounded by treachery. As they navigate the dangers of the court and the world around them, a relationship born out of chance becomes the foundation of an empire. Their friendship marks the start of a journey beyond the bounds of the world they know, beyond even any world they could imagine, and into legend.