Olympic Games, 22, 70, 232
Omphis, 190, 193, 194, 197, 199
“On Horsemanship” (Xenophon), 33
Opis, 5, 233, 237, 238, 240
Orxines, 223
Oxathres, 103, 139, 156, 161, 164, 170, 172, 173
Oxus, 169-70, 175, 178, 218, 246
Oxyartes, 182, 210
Parallel Lives (Plutarch), 13
Parmenion, 22, 60, 61, 75, 76, 79, 87, 91, 95, 97, 98, 99, 102, 103, 109, 116, 122, 133 ff., 140, 142, 147, 148, 157, 162, 164 ff., 178, 180
Parysatis, 227
Pasargadae, 146, 221, 222
Patroclus, 44, 240, 241, 247, 251, 252, 257
Patron, 151-2, 156
Pausanias, 34, 35, 55, 62-3, 65, 66, 68, 76
Peithagoras, 244, 247
Pella, 20, 30, 38, 43, 60, 77, 89, 243, 249
Pelopidas, 20
Peloponnesian War, 35, 47, 131
Perdiccas III, 19, 20-1, 73, 75
Perdiccas (general), 6, 64, 84, 89, 91, 190, 196, 206, 208, 244, 259, 265, 266, 267
Pericles, 37, 50, 51
Perinthus, 46, 47
Persepolis, 139, 144 ff., 153, 160, 221 ff., 248
Persian War, 61
Persis, 144
Peucestas, 206, 207, 208, 221, 223, 230, 250, 253, 264, 266
Pharnaces, 204-5
Phidias, 94
Philip II, 8, 10, 17, 19-26, 27, 29, 30, 32 ff., 44 ff., 71, 73 ff., 79, 82, 84 ff., 88-9, 97, 99, 108, 109, 121, 123, 159, 168, 177, 178, 184, 234, 238
Philip (doctor), 99, 241
Philostratus, 198
Philotas, 60, 79, 81, 83, 91, 96, 110, 122-3, 144, 162-4, 165-6
Phocians, 47, 49, 50, 83, 84, 85, 145
Phoenicians, 107, 112, 114, 215
Phoenix, 28, 113
Pindar, 85
Pixodorus, 59, 60, 94-5, 96-7
Plataeans, 50, 83, 84, 85
Plato, 10, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 54, 73
Plutarch, 13, 23, 29-30, 34, 41, 44, 45, 59, 60, 63, 65, 69, 73, 76, 85, 90, 98, 104, 105, 109, 113-14, 125, 128, 129, 131, 134, 142, 143, 147, 148, 153, 154, 155, 160, 162, 164, 180, 220, 224, 237, 239, 241, 242, 249, 250, 258, 259-60, 262, 267
Porus, 9, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197-9, 204
Poseidon, 89, 180-1, 213, 231
Pseudo-Callisthenes, 14, 159, 242, 243, 261
Ptolemy I, 5-7, 13, 30-2, 43, 48, 79, 84, 86, 89, 91, 101, 111, 120, 147, 148, 155, 161, 164, 170, 174, 179, 187, 191, 192, 194-5, 196, 198, 204 ff., 218, 219, 224, 226, 227, 234, 243 ff.
Punjab, 189, 190, 193, 200, 203, 214
Pythagoras, 256
Red Sea, 250, 251
Roman d’Alexandre, 16
Rome, Romans, 7, 11-12, 15, 73, 78, 101, 108, 127, 134, 140, 188, 221, 223, 233, 236, 245, 250
Roxane, 3, 16, 17, 110, 183-5, 186, 190, 204, 211, 220, 221, 226, 227, 239, 243, 247, 248, 250, 267-8
Royal Journal, 256, 261
Royal Kindred, 173, 176, 235
Royal Road, 5, 139, 142, 233, 247
Sacred Band, 20, 34, 51, 52, 53, 83, 85
Sacred League, 47, 49, 51, 75
Sambus of Sind, 212
Samarkand, 171, 178
Samos, 231
Samothrace, 19, 21
Sangala, 200
Sarapis, 243, 264
Sardis, 82, 93, 96, 109
Sarpedon, 52
Satibarzanes, 168
Scythians, 47, 171, 172, 245
Seleucus, 196, 226
Semiramis, 211, 219
Shakespeare, William, 71, 97
Sicily, 115, 131, 250
Sidon, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114
Sisygambis, 104, 105, 106, 128, 132, 137, 144, 153, 225, 246, 253, 268
Siwah, 57, 120, 243, 258
Socrates, 36, 37, 39, 41, 71, 73, 108, 264
Sogdiana, 129, 171, 182-3, 184, 185, 190, 203
Sparta, Spartans, 20, 25, 35, 49, 54, 110, 112, 126, 173, 223, 230, 249
Speusippus, 39
Spitamenes, 182, 226
Stagira, 40, 46
Stateira, 104-5, 131-2, 154, 205
Stateira-Barsine. See Barsine-Stateira
Stein, Sir Aurel, 192
Stories of Alexander (Chares), 226
Strabo, 194
Successors, 230, 235
Susa, 139, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147, 221, 224, 225, 227, 229, 230, 238, 239, 244, 246, 247, 248
Syria, 5, 6
Syrian seer, 186-7
Tarn, Sir William, 17, 89, 148
Tarsus, 99
Taxila, 190, 193, 198, 204, 210, 211
Thais, 147, 148
Theagenes, 85
Thebes, 19-20, 34, 36, 49, 50, 51, 53, 76, 82-3, 84-5, 86, 89, 110, 120
Theophrastus, 11
Thermopylae, 49, 75, 144
Thessaly, 26, 35, 49, 75, 82, 198
Thettalus, 59, 60-1, 123, 227
Thrace, Thracians, 22, 24, 26, 32, 40, 44, 45, 46, 47, 76, 77, 80, 84, 86, 98, 174, 196
Tigris, 5, 129, 130, 131, 233, 246
Triballians, 47, 76, 78
Troy, Trojans, 22, 24, 44, 52, 68, 89-90, 207, 221
Trojan War, 159
Tyre, Tyrians, 6, 112, 113, 114-15, 123, 140
Uxians, 144
Valerius, Julius, 14-15
Vasco of Lucena, 16
Warburton, Sir Robert, 190, 191
Wilcken, Ulrich, 116, 142
Williams, John, 67
Xenocrates, 54
Xenophon, 33-4, 71-3, 79, 92, 101, 102, 106, 107, 126, 127, 131, 133, 139, 147, 169, 170, 222
Xerxes I, the Great, 49, 108, 116, 140, 144, 146, 147, 246
Zeus, 8, 24, 57, 67, 80, 87, 93-4, 120, 122, 143, 180, 231
Zoroaster, 9, 154
A Biography of Mary Renault
Mary Renault (1905–1983) was an English writer best known for her historical novels on the life of Alexander the Great: Fire from Heaven (1969), The Persian Boy (1972), and Funeral Games (1981).
Born Eileen Mary Challans into a middle-class family in a London suburb, Renault enjoyed reading from a young age. Initially obsessed with cowboy stories, she became interested in Greek philosophy when she found Plato’s works in her school library. Her fascination with Greek philosophy led her to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where one of her tutors was J. R. R. Tolkien. Renault went on to earn her BA in English in 1928.
Renault began training as a nurse in 1933. It was at this time that she met the woman that would become her life partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. Renault also began writing, and published her first novel, Purposes of Love (titled Promise of Love in its American edition), in 1939. Inspired by her occupation, her first works were hospital romances. Renault continued writing as she treated Dunkirk evacuees at the Winford Emergency Hospital in Bristol and later as she worked in a brain surgery ward at the Radcliffe Infirmary.
In 1947, Renault received her first major award: Her novel Return to Night (1946) won an MGM prize. With the $150,000 of award money, she and Mullard moved to South Africa, never to return to England again. Renault revived her love of ancient Greek history and began to write her novels of Greece, including The Last of the Wine (1956) and The Charioteer (1953), which is still considered the first British novel that includes unconcealed homosexual love.
Renault’s in-depth depictions of Greece led many readers to believe she had spent a great deal of time there, but during her lifetime, she actually only visited the Aegean twice. Following The Last of the Wine and inspired by a replica of a Cretan fresco at a British museum, Renault wrote The King Must Die (1958) and its sequel, The Bull from the Sea (1962).
The democratic ideals of ancient Greece encouraged Renault to join the Black Sash, a women’s movement that fought against apartheid in South Africa. Renault was also heavily involved in the literary community, where she believed all people should be afforded equal standard and opportunity, and was the honorary chair of the Cape Town branch of PEN, the international writers’ organization.
Renault passed away in Cape Town on December 13, 1983.
Renault in 1940.
Renault and Julie Mullard on board the Cairo in 1948, on their way to South Africa, where they settled in Durban.