#The Persian Boy

[nvd94]

‘You must tell me when I say the Persian wrongly. Don’t be afraid to correct me, or I shall never learn.’

I said I had thought he would never love me. I did not beg him to take me with him wherever he was going; I did not think so far. I was like a traveler in the desert,who comes to water.

The persian Boy- Mary Renault

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[dandelionfool]

doodling al'skander when i should be sleeping because i have not recovered from the effects of the persian boy

[aniitahhhah]

People need to talk more about this book i love it

we need a bigger fandom!!

sorry for my bad drawings its the best i could do at 12 am😭🙏

[i-shall-not-show-mercy]

Alexander: I should dress the part now that I rule Persia.

Bagoas: yeah! Plus it's cold... you should wear pants. You'd be warmer than in chitons.

Alexander: OVER MY DEAD BODY! Pants are great on you btw. But on me? NEVER!

[vyoongi]

Me, staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m.: I think I’m in love with a historical figure from 300 BCE as written by Mary Renault

[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

[ghostwithwings]

Alexander marrying and making his homies to marry too so that Hephaestion's children and his own can play together.

[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!!!

[ihavedonenothingright]

Working on a side-by-side comparison of The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) and The Persian Boy (Mary Renault) because I hold that a large volume of the issues in TSOA's characterization of Patroclus come directly from Miller's attempts to make him a similar viewpoint character to Bagoas, and therefore, cast Achilles in a similar light to Renault's Alexander. I will note that Miller has not yet (to my knowledge) named The Alexander Trilogy specifically as an inspiration for The Song of Achilles, but she has named Renault as an inspiration, as well as a few other books of hers, so I think the likelihood is high she was referencing it. It's fairly obvious to me that the first line of The Song of Achilles is in the same vein as the first line of The Persian Boy, and I suspect that is intentional; both as a form of homage to the structure of epic poetry, and as a means of emphasizing the importance familial ties will play in the text.

"My father was a king and the son of kings" vs. "Lest anyone should suppose I am a son of nobody..."

Miller's Patroclus is not beat-for-beat Renault's Bagoas, but I do believe he's inspired by and designed to almost contrast with him. Bagoas identifies deeply with his lineage and his father, who were taken from him early, while Patroclus does not identify with his lineage and was rejected by his father. Bagoas wants to be a man by the terms of his society, but is prevented from doing so, while Patroclus rejects most of his culture's aspects of manhood, and the one time he meets them he is killed. It's important, however, that both of them are noncombatants (by choice or no) because it positions them away from the acts of killing, rape, and destruction their Special Blond Guys are doing, thereby making the blondies more likable. But while Bagoas's position as a noncombatant is rooted in history, Patroclus's is a notable departure from his position in The Iliad.

I'll go more in depth on all of this once I have the time, but if you haven't read any of Renault's works, I highly recommend them. Prepare yourself for a... flawed portrayal of Persia though.

[nvd94]

The Persian boy sketches 🪷

[telltaleangelina]

"I would whisper to some shadow made of moonlight, "Am I beautiful? It is for you alone. Say that you love me, for without you I cannot live." It was true, at least, that youth cannot live without hope."

-- The Persian Boy, Mary Renault

[benedictusantonius]

[2023|103] The Persian Boy (1972) written by Mary Renault

[aniitahhhah]

This came to me in a dream

[shiobookmark]

I finished The Persian Boy. For how much Alexander frustrated me at times, I wasn't expecting to cry when he died. He really did feel like an actual person you could know. Bagoas as well. Honestly my favourite aspect of it, which takes a while to pick up on, is realising that Bagoas, for all that he's the template for Miller's Patroclus (probably) really... isn't aware of how damaging his love for Alexander is. Hephaestion: (Has a really valid reason for criticising Alexander, whom he loves.) Bagoas: Clearly I love him more. My only concern is that my lord is happy, and has all he wishes to content him. <3 Hephaestion: (From a distance) (Cupped hands) Hey IDIOT! Alexander is going to get very murdered if he doesn't cut this shit out. Bagoas: ?? Hephaestion: (Long suffering) Yeah and he only seems to listen to you so maybe STOP HIM Bagoas: Oh shit. And then he just never acknowledges this flaw in himself. Or he does but only barely and it's like pulling teeth. He's such a petty little shit I love him and I don't get it but uh wow, some traumas run deep. Great book. I gotta grab Fire From Heaven, the first in the series, because it has more Hephaestion in it.

[jules-of-the-black-forest]

That's it. That's the book.