The altar of Eros

F. Ross

Greece, in the aftermath of the crucifixion of Christ, erupts in a torrent of anti-Christian hedonism and revelry in this novel of Eros and erudition. Moving from the decadence and vice of Imperial Rome to the rugged islands of Krete and Kos, it is a deeply understanding, sensitive account of love between men, which in ancient Greece was often "noble, passionate and enduring." That it could then be also base, mercenary and casual is fully shown. The reactions of those Greeks who still believed in the Olympian gods to the strange new doctrines of Christos and the puritanical fervor of his followers is a major theme of this story.