The Last Hero

Name: The Last Hero
Rating: 3.97 (35 reviews)

by Hilary Green

First published 2013

Amazon

3.5(35)

Two generations after the heroes return from Troy, Prince Alkmaion of Pylos lives beneath the reputation of his ancestor Nestor and fears he cannot equal the courage celebrated in palace songs. An accidental sacrilege during worship of the Great Goddess sends him on a voyage of purification. Beyond the familiar Mycenaean kingdoms, he encounters Dorian communities gathering iron weapons and preparing to move south.

Alkmaion returns with warnings that complacent rulers dismiss until invasion begins destroying the palace world. He and his lover Alectryon travel from Pylos to Mycenae and Athens seeking allies among the descendants of Agamemnon. Battles finally give Alkmaion the opportunity to prove himself, but the collapse around him questions whether heroic individual action can preserve a civilisation whose institutions are already failing.