#Fire from Heaven

[mcversipellis]

“True friends share everything, except the past before they met.”

― Mary Renault, Fire from Heaven

*Redid my old (not really old, they’re from last year🙄) illustrations on the historical novel “Fire from heaven” which follows a journey of Alexander the Great through childhood to the very end.

[alphab3tmafia]

been talking with Mary renault... we agree with these

[i-shall-not-show-mercy]

Alexander to Hephaistion: true friends share everything.

Alexander: here. Read my mail.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Hercules and Omphale, a Fresco from the House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto, triclinium 16, east wall, Pompeii, c 70 CE. National Archaeological Museum of Naples :: [Robert Scott Horton]

* * * *

“I left you to make you understand my mystery. Do not believe others will die, not you. It is not for that I'm your friend. By laying myself on the pyre, I became divine. I have wrestled with Thanatos knee to knee, and I know how death is vanquished. Man's immortality is not to live forever, for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear, makes a man immortal.” ― Mary Renault, Fire from Heaven

[ghostwithwings]

I miss Alexander and Hephaestion! Mary Renault you gave us too little!

[springs-hurts]

He was avenging Patroklos, his friend, whom Hektor had killed.” The boy considered this intently. “He was his best friend of all?" “Yes, from when they were boys together.” “Why didn’t Achilles save him first, then?”

Mary Renault, Fire From Heaven.

So who gonna tell little Alexander that Achilles was cause of Patroclus' death? 🥲

𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙏- nvm, he came to that conclusion quite easily.

“He was stopped by the boy’s shocked stare. ,...“He couldn’t do that! He was a general! And he sent a junior officer; when he wouldn’t go! It was his fault Patroklos died.” “Oh, yes, he knew. He had sacrificed him to his pride. That was why he fulfilled his death-fate.”

[llitchilitchi]

having read through the persian boy, I can't get over how absolutely batshit unhinged both Roxana and Bagoas were in the novel, and the contrast of that to Hephaistion's relative calm, the only sane person among Alexander's lovers. and then I remembered fire from heaven and how Hephaistion nearly crushed Alexander to death out of cuteness aggression

[mademoiselle-red]

And now that I’m thinking about Hephaestion and the first two books of Renault’s Alexander Trilogy, it really hit me in the face how despite Renault’s best efforts to paint him as the long-suffering spouse in a sexless marriage, this man’s life is not a tragedy. He befriended a prince as a teenager and ended up 1) rich beyond his wildest dreams 2) the second most powerful man in the largest empire in the (known) world, 3) officially royalty by marriage to the sister of the king’s wife, and 4) dearly loved and trusted by Alexander above all others, all his life. Like, this man died young (and in an utterly idiotic and painful way), but he’s had a good run!!!

[lookatjesus]

Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

Exodus 9:23

[xserpx]

One might have supposed that the true act of love was to lie together and talk.

— Fires from Heaven by Mary Renault

He talked of man and fate; of words heard in dreams from speaking serpents; of the management of cavalry against infantry and archers; he quoted Homer on heroes, Aristotle on the Universal Mind, and Solon on love; he talked of Persian tactics and the Thracian battle-mind; about his dog that had died, about the beauty of friendship. He plotted the march of Xenophon's Ten Thousand, stage by stage from Babylon to the sea. He retailed the backstairs gossip of the Palace, the staff room and the phalanx, and confided the most secret policies of both his parents. He considered the nature of the soul in life and death, and that of the gods; he talked of Herakles and Dionysus, and how Longing can achieve all things.

Listening in bed, in the lee of mountain crags, in a wood at daybreak; with an arm clasping his waist or a head thrown back, on his shoulder, trying to silence his noisy heart, Hephaistion understood he was being told everything. With pride and awe, with tenderness, torment and guilt, he lost the thread, and fought with himself, and caught the drift again to find something gone past recall. Bewildering treasures were being poured into his hands and slipping through his fingers, while his mind wandered to the blinding trifle of his own desire. At any moment he would be asked what he thought; he was valued as more than a listener. Knowing this he would attend again, and be caught up even against his will; Alexander could transmit imagination as some other could transmit lust. Sometimes, when he was lit up and full of gratitude for being understood, Longing, who has the power to achieve all things, would prompt the right word or touch; he would fetch a profound sigh, dragged up it seemed from the depth of his being, and murmur something in the Macedonian of his childhood; and all would be well, or as well as it could ever be.

[gayskogul]

Listed off some of the books I’ve read in the past year to my little sister, who works as a librarian, and she just gave me this pitying look and said a soft, “Oh, babes...”

[the-phooey]

True friends share everything, except the past before they met.

Mary Renault, Fire from Heaven

[alphab3tmafia]

Getting into a historical fandom is so funny cause like,,, what do you mean we're calling the conqueror of the Greek known world a little meow meow

[i-shall-not-show-mercy]

"Fire from heaven" by Mary Renault is so funny.

Let me set the scene, 6 year old Alexander the Great and 18 year old Ptolemy are taking a stroll with Alexander's dog that is HUGE.

Ptolemy: damn... a man was bit? I wouldn't want to be bitten by this dog.

Alexander: no. The puppy was too small to bite back then. I bit the man.

Ptolemy: ...

Alexander: oh look we can go that way!

Ptolemy: ...

[chebepowder]

Okay Alexander the Great, calm down, you got me

[ghostwithwings]

I already am loving Alexander & Hephaestion 💙👬 I also am loving Alexander & Bucephalus if I may add 🏇