Funeral Games

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Funeral Games is a 1981 historical novel by Mary Renault. One character in it is a dog named Eos, whose name means "dawn". He is a big beautiful white-furred hunting hound, and he is chosen to be the sacrificial victim in a ceremony to reconcile the various Macedonian factions that have been fighting after the death of Alexander the Great. The feeble-minded king of Macedon, Phillip Arrhidaios, is very fond of Eos and objects strenously to the sacrifice, disrupting the ceremony, with serious consequences for world history. Other characters in the novel include Bagoas (courtier), the beloved of the late Alexander, who helps Ptolemy, half-brother of Alexander, and Satrap of Egypt, relocate Alexander's mummy to Alexandria. Possession of the Great King's sacred remains helps Ptolemy become Pharaoh. The villain of the book is the evil Kassandros, who plots to take over the throne of Macedon and to exterminate Alexander's family.