Characters / Creation (1981)

Characters in Gore Vidal's 1981 historical novel 'Creation'.

Cyrus Spitama

The protagonist of the novel.The half-Greek grandson of Zoroaster, Cyrus finds himself growing up in the heart of the Persian court through his family's close ties with the father of the Great King Darius, Hystaspes, a devout convert to Zoroaster's teachings, following his grandfather's murder by Turanian nomads. He is later appointed by Darius as Persia's emissary to the kingdoms of India, and later the Warring States of Cathay. His recounting of his travels and encounters with the great sages of the ancient world to his maternal nephew, Democritus, is the substance of the novel.

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• Audience Surrogate: A rather interesting example of this trope. Vidal partly envisioned this novel as a 'crash course in comparative religion', and while most contemporary readers in Europe and the Americas (his intended audience) might be expected to identify with the Classical Greeks, who are conventionally seen as the precursors to 'Western civilization', their polytheistic religious beliefs and customs as depicted in the novel are actually just as alien to a mostly Christian or post-Christian audience as that of the ancient Indians or Chinese! Cyrus' Zoroastrianism, however, with its strict monotheism, dualistic views of good and evil, and belief in divine reward and punishment in the afterlife is in fact a far more familiar set of religious ideas for readers from historically Christian (or, for that matter, Muslim or Jewish) societies,and makes his reactions to the likes of Buddha, Confucius or Master Li much more relatable to those readers than say, a Greek protagonist would have been.

• But Not Too Foreign:This trope applies for Cyrus both in Greece and in India. Thanks to his mother Lais, he speaks fluent Ionian Greek and thus enjoys more access and insight into the internal workings of the Greeks than would normally be expected for the Great King's ambassador, as well as inheriting her light eyes and fair complexion. In India, the shared Aryan heritage of the Persians and Indians is explicitly invoked by the Brahmins in allowing Cyrus to wed Ajatashatru's daughter Ambalika.Averted for the most part in Cathay, where he spends much of his time as a slave and his foreign barbarian appearance is constantly remarked upon.

• Cultural Posturing:Cyrus generally expresses a low opinion of the Greeks and their customs and culture, notwithstanding his own Greek heritage. Arguably Vidal put forward such views in the character to correct for the pro-Hellenic bias in our surviving sources for the era (Herodotus is explicitly mocked and criticized by Cyrus in the opening chapters of the novel), and to emphasise how *new* and crude the Greeks actually were by comparison to the far older cultures that existed at the time.

• Deadpan Snarker:Cyrus constantly makes sarcastic quips about the behaviour of the rich and powerful in every country he lives on or visits. Possibly his favourite target, however, is the politics of the Athenian democracy, and he makes no attempt to hide his sympathies for the aristocratic conservatives in the assembly.

• Democracy Is Bad:He views Athens' democracy as fickle mob rule, and sympathises with the exiled Greek tyrant families who are some of his closest friends in court growing up.

• Happily Married: Is this for a while with Ambalika in Magadha. Unfortunately it doesn't last, as he is forced to go home to Susa, and by the time they reunite many years later, their love for each other has long since faded away due to separation and the passage of time. They remain on good terms however, and part mostly amicably.

• The Chosen One: Played with.He is seen as this early on by the Zoroastrian order and Hystaspes, as the prophet's grandson and as the only person who had witnessed the Wise Lord speaking through Zoroaster. Both hope he will convert the Magians in the court, and thus ultimately the whole Empire to the sole worship of the Wise Lord. However, he has little interest in a religious life (though he claims devotion to, and never rejects his grandfather's teachings throughout his life) and largely lets his surviving family in Bactra tend to the order, in favour of his diplomatic and political career. By and large, he never involves himself much in the proselytisation of Zoroastrianism, much to the disappointment of Hystaspes and other devout believers.

• Would Hit a Girl: Beats his second wife Parys for disobedience, on the advice of her mother, Queen Atossa. Very much part of the Deliberate Values Dissonance inherent to the setting.Afterwards he expresses puzzlement that she hates him more than ever, instead of making her love him as he was told it would.

Persia

[[folder: Hystaspes]]

The father of Great King Darius, Hystaspes is the powerful satrap of Bactra. He was converted to Zoroastrianism by the prophet, who fled his hometown of Rhages to escape persecution. Fiercely committed to his new faith, Hystaspes takes the young Cyrus under his protection and uses his influence with his son to have the boy educated among the highest Persian nobility.

• The Atoner: Suggested that his fervent belief in Zoroaster's teaching is a means for him to expiate his guilt for his complicity in the murder and usurpation of the rightful Great King, Mardos, at the hands of his son Darius.

• Cool Old Guy: Cyrus sees him as this, and justifiably so.

India

[[folder: Ajatasatru]]

The rather overweight crown prince of Magadha, Ajatasatru becomes Cyrus' father-in-law through his daughter Ambalika. He later deposes and kills his father, Bimbisara, and proceeds to subjugate all the kingdoms of the Gangetic valley.

• Faux Affably Evil: Extremely cloying and affectionate to Cyrus, calling him my 'beloved son-in-law', and seems at first to be a fun-loving jolly Big Fun type of character. In reality, he is a brutal, ruthless conqueror who takes pleasure in impaling and castrating his defeated enemies.