[close] The Last of the Wine is Mary Renault's first novel set in ancient Greece, the setting that would become her primary arena. Published in '56, it is the second of her works to feature male homosexuality as a major theme. It's a convincing portrait of Athens at the close of the Golden Age & the end of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta.
The first person narrator is Alexias, a noble Athenian youth, a noted beauty in the polis & a champion runner. The novel shows young male Athenians were treated like modern debutantes, wooed by older men seeking to be their lovers. Alexias' father, Myron, himself a former beauty & champion athlete, writes his son before leaving Athens for the Sicilian Expedition. Myron imparts to Alexias the traits he should seek in a lover--qualities like honor, loyalty & courage. The father also warns him not to become involved with women. He is much too young. The teenager Alexias eventually falls in love with Lysis, a man in his 20's, a champion pankratiast & Socrates' student. The novel's coreis the relationship between the two, following them together in sport, peace & war.
Socrates also figures prominently, as both men become his students & his philosophy is much discussed. Also characterized in the novel are Plato & several figures from his Dialogs, also Socrates' students. Another historical figure who figures in the story, albeit mostly off-stage, is Alcibiades, the Athenian general who flees Athens on a charge of sacrilege & sells his services to other poleis, finally becoming a general serving Sparta & thus becoming partly responsible for Athens' destruction.
Lysis falls in love with & gets married to a woman who likes Alexias, encouraging the continuation of their relationship. By then Athens has been defeated. Lysis takes part in the democratic rebellion of Thrasybulus against the Spartan-imposed tyrannical regime & is killed in battle. Alexias takes Lysis' widow under his wing. He then meets Aster, a boy of exceptional beauty. The book ends with a postscript that the story is being told by Alexias' grandson, also named Alexias. [close]