History Literature / GodsAndWarriors

* DistinguishingMark: Hylas and Issi are the only people in the series to have fair hair. Gorgo reveals that [[spoiler:only the people from the Mountain Clan, their father's tribe, have fair hair]].

* FourElementEnsemble: The main Akean gods form one; the Lady of the Wild Things (or simply the Goddess) is water, the Earthshaker is earth (though his rule over the Sea makes him overlap with water as well), the Sky Father is air, and the Lady of Fire is fire.

* CuffsOffRubWrists: Hylas does this after Meritamen's slave cuts off his bindings.

* CuffsOffRubWrists: Pirra does this when [[spoiler:Issi cuts her free in the burning Lapithos]].

''Gods and Warriors'' is a series of children's fantasy novels by Creator/MichellePaver, the author of ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness''. The theme is very similar to that series, except that instead of taking place in stone-age Northern Europe, we adventure in Bronze Age Mediterranean. Also, instead of wolves, our loyal animal companions include a dolphin, a lion, and a falcon.

Be careful of LateArrivalSpoilers listed under the sequels.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:A secret rite known as the Mystery is about the High Priestess sacrificing herself in order to invoke the Goddess to get rid of the plague and bring the Sun back. Yassassara was planning to perform this as atonement before the plague caught her. With her being the next best choice, Pirra attempts to go through this in the climax, only for Echo to prevent her from killing herself at the last minute.]]

** The members of the House of Koronos and their warriors are referred to as the Crows due to their greed and preference to wearing black fluttering cloaks.

* BattleIntheRain: [[spoiler:Telamon and the heroes have their final confrontation on the rainy Ancestor Peak.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:After many hardships and losses, the Crows' reign is put to an end with the destruction of the dagger and the entire House of Koronos. Hylas finally reunites with Issi and mates with Pirra who's free of her constraining position as Yassassara's daughter, and the three of them continue their lives in Lykonia's mountains with Havoc and Echo while occasionally going to see Spirit. Akastos takes back his place as the High Chieftain of Mycenae and frees himself of the Angry Ones by appeasing his brother's ghost with Hylas' help.]]

* DyingCandle: [[spoiler:Lapithos has a huge central hearth where the House of Koronos has had a fire burning for generations without letting it die. After Koronos dies and almost everyone abandons the stronghold in terror, the fire has already burned out by the time Pirra enters the great hall while setting Lapithos on fire. It's shortly after this that the House of Koronos becomes completely extinguished when their last living members, Pharax and Telamon, are killed as well.]]

** When Hylas rips into Telamon for never telling him about [[spoiler:his kinship to the Crows]], Telamon retorts that Hylas has never shown interest in Telamon's world and that he shares with the villagers his unwillingness to learn about the world.

* JawDrop: This reaction pops up several times, such as with Pirra when she learns that Telamon, the boy she's supposed to marry, is friends with Hylas, Telamon when [[spoiler:Hylas tries to cast the dagger into Thalakrea's volcano, only for it to stop right at the crater's edge]], and Hylas when he's told [[spoiler:the dagger has been placed in Userref's tomb]].

* {{Atlantis}}: Tales say that the Island of the Fin People was long ago richer and more beautiful than anything that's ever been, but it was blown up when the gods were angered by the locals' pride. The people disappeared and as such, are called the Vanished Ones. [[spoiler:While trapped in the island's underground caves, Pirra ends up discovering the petrified remains of the Vanished Ones who were trapped by a cave in.]]

* IslandOfMystery: The Island of the Fin People (or as the Keftians call it, the Island of the Goddess) where Hylas and Pirra are stranded for most of the book. Tales say it used to be inhabited by a community that disappeared after angering the gods and became known as the Vanished Ones. Though haunted by the ghosts of the Vanished Ones [[spoiler:(whose petrified remains Pirra discovers in the cave they were trapped in)]], the deserted island is a sacred place only priestesses visit occasionally to make sacrifices and perform secret rites. [[spoiler:The Crows have also recently visited the island and burned an entire valley as a sacrifice to the gods so that they'd get the dagger back.]]

* TakenForGranite: Pirra discovers that [[spoiler:the Vanished Ones of the island were trapped underground, and their bodies have turned to stone to depict them in their last agonizing moments in a similar way to the people of Pompeii]].

* AWayOutOfACaveIn: Pirra ends up in this situation when an cave-in traps her underground. After crawling her way to a ray of light through [[spoiler:the Vanished Ones' stony corpses]] and finding a rockfall, she removes rocks to make a hole for herself and successfully gets out when Hylas assists her from the other side.

* ShoutOut: One of the things Hylas salvages from a shipwreck is a [[Literature/TheOdyssey wind pouch]].

* NotSoDifferentRemark: When Akastos leaves Hylas at the mercy of the Angry Ones, he tells the boy they're both survivors.