Funeral Games is a 1981 historical novel by Mary Renault, dealing with the death of Alexander the Great and its aftermath, the gradual disintegration of his empire and the start of the Wars of the Diadochi. It is the final book of her Alexander trilogy.

Synopsis

The chapters of the book have the years of the events for their titles:

Characters

All human characters are actual historical individuals, unless otherwise noted.

Reception

Writing in The Boston Phoenix, Andy Gaus noted that "Renault's critics would say that the most invented thing in her books is the tone and prevailing attitude, that she describes ancient life as a constant high drama, whose personages, though historical in name, are tailored to fit romantic descriptions, but not to real human proportions. Her critics are not wrong. Her relentlessly one-sided characterizations would be ridiculous if the setting were not so distant and legendary, and the panoramic sweep of the action between exultation and destruction reminds you of those paperback romances with embossed covers and names like Chalice of Passion...Yet it all works and it's hard to say why. On the one hand it seems that the very grandeur of her subject matter elevates her undistinguished narrative voice. On the other hand, her extensive knowledge of all aspects of ancient life--clothing, customs, warfare, trades, religion, language--enables her to create complete, thoroughly detailed scenes out of the bare accounts furnished by Quintus Curtius and Diodorus Siculus."

Sources

The historical sources listed for this book are: