History Literature / GodsAndWarriors

''Gods and Warriors'' is a series of children's fantasy novels by Creator/MichellePaver, the author of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAncientDarkness''. 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.

* MythologyGag: Paver subtly refers to her ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'' series by having Hylas and the other poorer people upholding much of the beliefs and knowledge of the stone-age hunter-gatherers.

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

** In the third book, [[spoiler:Kreon]] is gored and trampled by Kunisu's guardian bull.
** In the fourth book, [[spoiler:Alekto]] is killed by the Nile's crocodiles.

** Kem tries to give Hylas one in the fourth book, but Hylas dodges.
** In the final book, [[spoiler:Akastos uses his sword to impale Pharax through the groin when the Crow chieftain attempts to finish off the injured High Chieftain of Mycenae]].
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: In the beginning of the first book, Hylas hides in a tomb where the dying Keftian man who stole the dagger of Koronos gives it to him without telling anything more than it's precious.

**

On her mother's orders, Pirra is carried to a ship blindfolded when they set sail to Akea in the first book so that the girl can't have a look at the sea.

* TogethernDeath: [[spoiler:A sibling variant; after Hylas secures Userref's place in Egyptian afterlife by giving his mummy the Spells for Coming Forth by Day, Userref's older brother Nebetku dies to be with him forever. Pirra even has a dream of them being happily together in the Place of Reeds.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:¨
** [[spoiler:Kreon]] is pierced from the chest by the [[spoiler:horns of ]].

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: When Nebetku is introduced, he's coughing and reveals he's dying, even showing

* UnpleasantParentReveal: Hylas is displeased to learn in the third book that [[spoiler:his father was a member of the same Mountain Clan that refused to fight the Crows with the High Chieftain of Mycenae. Thinking his father was a coward, Hylas becomes determined not to end up like him. Before the final battle, Akastos tries to improve Hylas' opinion by telling him that as the Mountain Clan's leader, his father was just doing what he thought was best for his clan and fought bravely to the end when the Crows eventually caught him]].

* ReplacedWithReplica: [[spoiler:Just as it looks like the heroes have failed to steal the dagger from Kreon's stronghold, Akastos reveals that when nobody was looking, he swapped the real dagger with a copy and smuggled it outside.]]

* StolenMacGuffinReveal: In the climax of ''The Burning Shadow'', [[spoiler:the Crows take the dagger back from Hylas, only for the last chapter to reveal that they lost it while fleeing from Thalakrea's volcanic eruption. Then it's revealed at the end of Pirra's section that she managed to steal the dagger when Pharax and Telamon were covered by a landslide and keep it hidden with her as Hylas forced her to board the Keftian ship]].

** Pirra and her mother Yassasara are often compared to a falcon.

** [[spoiler:Akastos]] ,the High Chieftain of Mycenae, was known as the Lion of Mycenae. [[spoiler:Even his sealstone has a lion engraved on it. In fact, seeing Havoc and the lion claw on Hylas helps to convince him to finally return to Akea and lead a rebellion against the Crows.]]

* BadMoonRising: At the end of the fourth book, the Moon turns red, and an Egyptian wisewoman states it to foretell the Crows' bloody conquest of all of Akea with the invincibility the dagger of Koronos provides them. In the final book, this is what's been happening.

** Hylas has no knowledge or memory of his and Issi's father. He finds out that [[spoiler:he was the leader of the Mountain Clan who refused to help Akastos against the Crows and was left by his mate and children when he didn't heed her warnings about the Crows attacking them. He was eventually found and killed by the Crows]].

* DreadlockWarrior: Warriors, including Telamon and the other Crows, braid their long hair into many dreadlocks.

** Pirra doesn't know who her father was because she was conceived when her mother mated with three different priests. She was told that those priests died in an earthquake when she was little, but she wonders if Yassasara got rid of them to prevent them from causing trouble.

* KinslayingIsASpecialKindOfEvil: People who kill their own flesh and blood are chased by the Angry Ones. [[spoiler:Akastos is chased by them because he killed his brother who was deceived by the Crows to fight him. Telamon also becomes their target after he lets his aunt Alekto to be killed by the Nile's crododiles.]]

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Yassasara invoked this by mating with three different priests when she conceived Pirra.

** Kem is the nickname Egyptians gave to him when they enslaved him. It means "black", and he's very dark-skinned. [[spoiler:When Hylas gives him his lion-claw amulet, Kem reveals that his real name means "lion" in his native tongue.]]
* MissingMom: Hylas and Issi were left on Mount Lykas when they were little. [[spoiler:She meant to temporarily leave them and fetch help because they were too small to travel all the way from Mycenae to Messenia, but she died out of sickness before she could come back.]]
* MurderByInaction: [[spoiler:Telamon lets two of his relatives to die and even orders his underlings to do the same, first when crocodiles threaten Alekto, and then when Koronos has a seizure and drowns in a bowl of wine.]]

* ProphecyTwist: [[spoiler:After all the time Hylas is assumed to be the Outsider mentioned by the Oracle, it actually comes to pass when Telamon is the last living member of the House of Koronos and attempts to throw the dagger down the crack in the Ancestor Peak during a storm. Issi manages to grab the dagger for a brief moment before Hylas tells her to let Telamon have it. As Telamon boasts himself to be the House of Koronos, he's struck by lightning that burns him and shatters the dagger.]]

** Telamon is on a quest to kill twelve wild boars and make his own helmet out of their tusks by himself to become a warrior. He has achieved this by the time of the fourth book.

* ThunderboltIron: This being the Bronze Age, ïron is rare and dug out of meteorite. It can be used to ward off the Angry Ones for a while. Koronos himself wears an iron ring while sacrificing for the Angry Ones and starts wearing it all the time as the Angry Ones grow more powerful in the last book. [[spoiler:Telamon also starts wearing an iron ring after he becomes the Angry Ones' target by leaving Alekto to die.]]
* UndersideRide: Between the first and second books, Pirra tries to escape from the House of the Goddess by clinging to the webbing under a chariot.
* UnpleasantParentReveal: Hylas is displeased to learn in the third book that [[spoiler:his father was a member of the same Mountain Clan who refused to fight the Crows with the High Chieftain of Mycenae. Thinking his father was a coward, Hylas becomes determined not to end up like him. Before the final battle, Akastos tries to improve Hylas' opinion by telling him that as the Mountain Clan's leader, his father was just doing what he thought was best for his clan and fought bravely to the end when the Crows caught him]].

* Rite of Passage:

** The second book begins with Hylas captured by the Crows and taken to work in their copper mines of Thalakrea along with Periphas.
** Kem worked as a slave in salt mines for three years, managing to escape a few days beofre meeting Hylas and Pirra.

** Kem is the nickname Egyptians gave to him when they enslaved him. It means "black", and he's very dark-skinned. [[spoiler:His real name means in his native tongue "lion".]]

** In Kem's tribe

* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: In the beginning of the first book, Hylas hides in a tomb where the dying Keftian man who stole the dagger of Koronos gives it to him without telling anything more than it's important.

* ArrangedMarriage: In the first book, Pirra is set to marry Telamon as part of a bargain between their parents. When she is caught, however, Telamon refuses to marry her.