From this minor mention Renault creates an enthralling narrator. A Persian eunuch named Bagoas is in fact briefly mentioned in contemporary biographies of Alexander. As a eunuch, the enslaved youth's beauty and nobility eventually bring him to the attention of the rich and powerful, and he is taken into the royal household as a body servant and 'pleasure boy' to the Great King Darius, soon to go down in history for his defeat at the hands of the young Alexander of Macedon. Bagoas, a child of transcendent beauty, is spared death but becomes a spoil of war, sold to a slave dealer who has him gelded. Between these two lies 'The Persian Boy,' a first-person narrative by Bagoas, a young Persian of noble birth whose family is massacred in the wake of a palace coup. It is also a third-person narrative, and is weakened by a lack of focus-there are many players in these funeral games-and by being of necessity set in a time of great confusion. The final book, 'Funeral Games,' deals with the aftermath of Alexander's death and the partitioning of his empire. 'Fire from Heaven,' covering Alexander's life from early childhood to the death of his father Philip of Macedon, is a third-person narrative, sometimes dense but completely alive. The complete Alexander trilogy is now available on Audible. Of the eight, at least two are generally considered to be masterpieces: 'The King Must Die,' a realistic portrayal of archaic Greece and the legends of Theseus and 'The Persian Boy,' the second book of her trilogy centering on the personality and achievements of Alexander the Great. All eight are both brilliantly literary and deeply rooted in historical scholarship, and despite that are also just plain great reads. I’ll bet they didn’t tell you that in high school.Mary Renault wrote eight historical novels set in ancient Greece. So “ catamite ” is derived from “Ganymede” who was the boy lover of Zeus. But only males can be pederasts.) If something that would be attacked if it were contemporary is displaced into history or plainly labeled sci-fi or myth, it seems to be tolerated. Of course, then I had to look up pederasty and catamite.

(It took me weeks as a teenager in Portland, Oregon, to find out what sodomy was.

It’s a strange phenomenon that the most uptight and righteous cultures are often the safest for outliers, because there’s little recognition of what they are. If it had been “American,” there might have been outcry and, in fact, there was enough tsuris in England to indicate a move to South Africa was wise. It is, therefore, an historical romance, If it had been written by a gay man, there might have been uproar, but it was written by a gay woman.

“The Persian Boy” is a study in devotion justified by greatness, based on the historical evidence of a slave boy, Bagoas, who was the personal attendant and lover of Alexander the Great.

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault