The Last of the Wine
(By Mary Renault)
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| Author | Mary Renault |
The narrator is Alexias, a noble Athenian youth, a noted beauty & champion runner. The novel shows young male Athenians treated like modern debutantes, wooed by older men seeking to be their lovers. Alexias' father, Myron, himself a former beauty & champion athlete, writes his son before leaving Athens for the Sicilian Expedition. Myron imparts to Alexias the traits he should seek in a lover--qualities like honor, loyalty & courage. The father also warns him not to become involved with women. He's much too young. The teenager Alexias eventually falls in love with Lysis, a man in his 20's, a champion pankratiast & Socrates' student. The novel's core is the relationship between the two, following them in sport, peace & war.
Socrates figures prominently. Both men become his students. His philosophy is much discussed. Also characterized are Plato & several of Socrates' students from his dialogs. Another historical figure in the story, mostly off-stage, is Alcibiades, the Athenian general who flees Athens on a charge of sacrilege & sells his services to other poleis, finally becoming a general serving Sparta & thus becoming partly responsible for Athens' destruction.
Lysis falls in love with & weds a woman who likes Alexias, encouraging the continuation of their relationship. By then Athens has been defeated. Lysis takes part in the democratic rebellion of Thrasybulus against the Spartan-imposed tyranny & is killed in battle. Alexias takes Lysis' widow under his wing. He then meets Aster, a boy of exceptional beauty. The book ends with a postscript that the story is being told by Alexias' grandson, also named Alexias.”
