Line #33 Literature/ThaisOfAthens


1	[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/61yuyx7uifl_ac_uf10001000_ql80.jpg]]
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3	''Thaïs of Athens'' (Russian: "Таис Афинская") is a HistoricalFiction novel written by the Soviet paleontologist and SF writer Creator/IvanYefremov and set around the time of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat's conquests. The eponymous heroine Thaïs is a famous [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece Athenian]] [[HighClassCallGirl hetaera]], whom history remembers for burning the [[AncientPersia Achaemenid Persia's]] capital to the ground and later reigning as queen of [[AncientEgypt Ptolemaic Egypt]]. The novel takes these facts and [[HistoricalInJoke fills in the gaps and gray areas between and around them]] with invented characters and events that Thais encounters in her journey across the Ecumene. The result is both a compelling story and an epic panorama of life in the Hellenistic world during the late fourth century BCE.
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5	Although the novel was first published in Russian in 1972, it was only [[http://www.thaisofathens.com/ recently translated]] to English, almost forty years later.
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7	!!The novel provides examples of following works:
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9	* AncientEgypt: Thais stays in Egypt twice in the course of the novel: once as an exile, and once, as its queen.
10	* AncientPersia: Where she requests Persepolis be set on fire. The novel also treats the beginnings of Hellenisation of the region.
11	* BadassArmy: Alexander's Macedonian army (trained by his late father) is unstoppable at the beginning of his conquest, but is worn out and largely ineffective by the time they reach Persepolis.
12	%%* BrainyBrunette: Thais.
13	%%* TheCasanova: Ptolemy.
14	* CelibateHero: Alexander avoids women, following a disastrous FirstLove (crushed by his EvilMatriarch of a mom). Thais is the only other woman he has ever shown any romantic interest in.
15	* CoolHorse: Bucephalus, but also any horse ridden by the Macedonians and Thessalonians. Likewise, Boanergos, the stallion presented to Thais by Ptolemy and Leontiscus. Salmaach is decisively uncool, on the other hand.
16	* CopeByCreating: The heroine falls into a deep depression after losing [[spoiler:both her BestFriend Aegesichore and her lover Menedem]] in a single day. The only thing that keeps her afloat (until major changes in her life help her overcome it) is riding out into the wilderness and dancing for hours at a time.
17	* DanceOfDespair: The title heroine falls into a despair after [[spoiler:her BestFriend Aegesichore and her lover Menedem are both murdered in a single day]]. The only thing that keeps her afloat (until major changes in her life help her overcome it) is riding out into the wilderness and dancing for hours at a time.
18	%%* DarkActionGirl: Eris.
19	* DashedPlotLine: Skips of one to three years take place between most chapters, culminating in a nine-year skip in the middle of the last chapter.
20	* DeadGuyJunior: In the novel, Thais names her and Ptolemy's (historical) son Leontiscus after the (fictional) Thessalonian cavalryman Leontiscus, who was her long-time admirer and was KIA shortly before her son's birth.
21	* DeathByDisfigurement: Combat fitness is a ''very'' SeriousBusiness for Spartans.
22	* DoesNotLikeMen: Hesione [[spoiler:until she meets Nearchus]]. Eris, too.
23	* EthicalSlut: Thais. Comes with being a priestess of [[LoveGod Aphrodite]] (of sorts).
24	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Olympias is not depicted very favorably.
25	* GoOutWithASmile: Customary among the Greeks. In particular, [[spoiler:Menedem and Cleophrades]] die smiling. Eris {{lampshade}}s this when [[spoiler:she almost dies in Thais' arms after saving her from assassins]].
26	* GreenEyedMonster: What drives [[spoiler:Aeositeus to kill Aegesichore]].
27	* HappinessInSlavery: Pretty much every slave Thais has is happy with their fate (except Za-Asht).
28	* HeroicBSOD: Thais suffers this after the deaths of [[spoiler:Aegesichore and Menedem, Alexander, and Roxanne and Alexander's son]].
29	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Thais and Eris. Men come and go but those two stick together.
30	%%* HighClassCallGirl: Thais and Aegesichore.
31	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Thais, UsefulNotes/{{Alexander\|TheGreat}}, Ptolemy, Hephaestion, Nearchus, Cleitus, Creator/{{Aristotle}}, and Lysippos. Also, Thalestris... kinda.
32	* HistoricalFiction: While the novel is [[ShownTheirWork extremely faithful]] to history books (with one exception[[note]]The author himself acknowledges that he pushed the creation of Art/VenusDeMilo two centuries earlier to be used in a discussion of Greek {{sculpture\|s}}.[[/note]]), it has a number of clearly fictional plot lines, such as Thais' initiation in various ancient mysteries and her rocky romance with Alexander.
33	%%* HistoricalInJoke: 90% of the text.
34	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Thais with pretty much every man she is with, but especially Menedem.
35	* IdenticalGrandparent: Kinda. In the Cretan ruins of Matala, Thais discovers an ancient mosaic depicting a woman who looks ''exactly'' like herself.
36	* InitiationCeremony: Thais goes through the Orphean initiation, the Atargatis cult rituals, and the "kiss of the viper" ritual.
37	* LadykillerInLove: Ptolemy's relationship with Thais.
38	* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Thais, a queen, a faithful wife, and a mother of two by the end of the book, and Eris, a gloomy DarkActionGirl (who is untypically chaste--but only because she was fed up with sex even before she met Thais). Which is an ironic reversal of Thais' darker and more aloof part in her duo with the classically heroic Aegesichore in the early chapters.
39	* LightLiegeDarkDefender: The title heroine is a beautiful hetaira who relies on her social skills and insight to advance in life. Her slave Eris, meanwhile, is a DarkActionGirl -- a failed priestess who would have been executed for breaking her oaths, had Thais not successfully negotiated for her life. Eris then becomes fiercely devoted to Thais, saving her from assassins on several occasions.
40	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The format of the title may be a reference to Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TimonOfAthens''.
41	* TheMatchmaker: Thais seems to view it as her lifelong mission to set up everyone she meets with their personal soul mate. The only time she fails is [[spoiler:with Eris]].
42	* MutualKill: [[spoiler:Aeositeus and Menedem]]. Technically, the former wasn't killed, only mostly paralyzed. However, as a Spartan, he requests others to euthanize him rather than live with the injury.
43	* MyopicConqueror: UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat is depicted as this; his life's goal is to reach the eastern edge of the world (which he believes to lie just beyond India, unaware of the rest of Asia), and he pursues it in the only way he knows how -- by conquering everything between Macedon and India, with little regard to how the conquered lands will be ruled later.
44	* NakedFirstImpression: Ptolemy's first meeting with Thais.
45	* NoLovesIntersect: For pretty much anyone in the book who isn't Thais.
46	* NoNameGiven: The Delian Philosopher.
47	* ThePromise: Ptolemy's promise to become a king and make Thais his queen in the first chapter.
48	* RapeAsDrama: Part of Hesione's BackStory.
49	* RescueRomance: Not quite this, but Thais and Menedem get a RelationshipUpgrade after he saves her life in the temple of Sobek.
50	* SecondLove: Spans the whole novel as a motif. Let's see...
51	** For Thais: Alexander, after Menedem (even though she ends up marrying Ptolemy).
52	** For Alexander: Thais, after an unnamed slave he fell in love in his youth.
53	** For Nearchus: [[spoiler:Hesione]], after Aegesichore.
54	** For Aechephile: the lilitu priestesses, after Eris.
55	* SexGoddess: Thais, as a side effect of being a priestess of [[LoveGod Aphrodite]].
56	* SickeninglySweethearts: Nearchus and [[spoiler:Hesione]].
57	* SlaveMarket: Quite a few such markets appear, owing to the nature of the setting. One particular example would be where Thais purchases Hesione (a Theban girl who was MadeASlave after UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat's army sacked Thebes).
58	* SuperSoldier: Individually, the Spartans are the strongest fighters in the book.
59	* UnstoppableRage: Alexander is prone to it.
60	* {{Utopia}}: Examined by Ouranpolis. Thais views Greece (particularly, Athens) as this but grows increasingly disillusioned with it throughout the book.
61	* WarElephants: Seleucus gathers a whole unit of battle elephants while campaigning in India. It never sees much action in the novel, but Thais gets to ride one in Babylon.

Context Literature / ThaisOfAthens