The Arrows of Hercules

The Arrows of Hercules
Dust-jacket illustration for The Arrows of Hercules
Author	L. Sprague de Camp
Cover artist	Charles McCurry
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Historical novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1965
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	297 pp
Preceded by	The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
Followed by	An Elephant for Aristotle

The Arrows of Hercules is an historical novel by L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Doubleday in 1965^[1] and in paperback by Curtis Books in 1970.^[2] The book was reissued with a new introduction by Harry Turtledove as a trade paperback and ebook by Phoenix Pick in April 2014.^[3] It is the fourth of de Camp's historical novels in order of writing, and second chronologically, set in the time of Dionysios I of Syracuse at the end of the 5th and beginning of the 4th centuries BC.

Plot summary

The protagonist is the engineer Zopyros of Tarentum, a follower of the Pythagorean philosophical school. Having invented an improved type of catapult, he is drafted into Syracuse's war effort against Carthage by the tyrant Dionysios, creator of the first military ordnance department known to history. The historical Battle of Motya of 399 BC is a major event in the novel. Also portrayed is the incident upon which the legend of the Sword of Damocles is supposedly based.

Reception

Contemporary reviews of the novel were favorable. Shildes Johnson in Library Journal "highly recommended" the book, calling it "[a]n intriguing novel" and a "fascinating historical romance which is a worthwhile addition to any library." The author "makes his characters live, and the reader can almost imagine the social, economic, and religious milieu of this period in Grecian history."^[4]

Jackie Pettycrew in The Arizona Republic deemed it a "rousing piece of fiction" with an "abundance" of action whose "pace is rapid and unrelenting." She rated it an "[a]ltogether, highly entertaining, lightly informative" book bringing ancient history "vividly to life."^[5]

Booklist noted its "[a]uthentic background and synthetic [sic: sympathetic] characters mingle easily in a story where action, color, page, and plot have the virile appeal evident in the author's The dragon of [the] Ishtar Gate.^[6]

Edith Farr Ridington in Classical World called it "an adventurous, breezy tale" with "exciting and quite believable adventures" written "in a colloquial style that helps to make ancient times come alive" and which "uses to good advantage the author's special interest in ancient engineering." She notes that "[t]he book is spiced here and there with some frank sexualities; otherwise its appeal would seem to be especially to young people interested in a story combining mechanical devices with adventure."^[7]

Notes

↑ Library of Congress (1965). "LCCN 65-10595". The arrows of Hercules.
↑ Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. p. 27.
↑ Amazon.com record for the Phoenix Pick edition
↑ Johnson, Shildes. "New Books Appraised. Fiction. De Camp, L. Sprague. The Arrows of Hercules." In Library Journal, v. 90, no. 2, January 15, 1965, p. 268.
↑ Pettycrew, Jackie. "Highly Entertaining Tale." In The Arizona Republic, Feb. 21, 1965, p. C-29.
↑ "Fiction. De Camp, Lyon Sprague. The arrows of Hercules." In The Booklist, v. 61, no. 13, Mar. 1, 1965, p. 649.
↑ Ridington, Edith Farr. "Some Recent Historical Fiction and Juveniles, XI." In Classical World, v. 59, no. 3, Nov. 1965, pp. 75-76.

Preceded by The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate	Historical novels of L. Sprague de Camp The Arrows of Hercules	Succeeded by An Elephant for Aristotle

Works by L. Sprague de Camp

Viagens Interplanetarias

Krishna	"Finished" (1949) "Perpetual Motion" (1950) The Queen of Zamba (1949) "Calories" (1951) The Hand of Zei (1950) The Hostage of Zir (1977) The Prisoner of Zhamanak (1982) The Virgin of Zesh (1953) The Bones of Zora (1983) The Tower of Zanid (1958) The Swords of Zinjaban (1991)

Kukulkan	The Stones of Nomuru (1988) The Venom Trees of Sunga (1992)

Other	"The Animal-Cracker Plot" (1949) "The Colorful Character" (1949) "The Continent Makers" (1951) "The Galton Whistle" (1951) "Git Along!" (1950) "The Inspector's Teeth" (1950) Rogue Queen (1951) "Summer Wear" (1950)

Collections	The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (1953) The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid (1983)

Harold Shea (with Fletcher Pratt and others)

de Camp/ Pratt canon	"The Roaring Trumpet" (1940) "The Mathematics of Magic" (1940) The Castle of Iron (1941/50) "The Wall of Serpents" (1953) "The Green Magician" (1954) "Sir Harold and the Gnome King" (1990) "Sir Harold of Zodanga" (1995)

Collections	The Incomplete Enchanter (1941) Wall of Serpents (collection) (1960) The Compleat Enchanter (1975) The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989) The Enchanter Reborn (1992) The Exotic Enchanter (1995) The Mathematics of Magic (2007)

Pusadian series

Stories	The Tritonian Ring (1951) "The Eye of Tandyla" (1951) "The Owl and the Ape" (1951) "The Hungry Hercynian" (1953) "The Stone of the Witch Queen" (1977) "Ka the Appalling" (1958) "The Rug and the Bull" (1974) "The Stronger Spell" (1953)

Collections	The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales (1953)

Novarian series

Stories	"The Emperor's Fan" (1973) The Fallible Fiend (1973) The Goblin Tower (1968) The Clocks of Iraz (1971) The Unbeheaded King (1983) The Honorable Barbarian (1989)

Collections	The Reluctant King (1985)

Neo-Napolitanian series

Novels	The Incorporated Knight (1987) The Pixilated Peeress (1991)

Conan series (with Robert E. Howard and others)

Novels	Conan and the Spider God (1980) Conan of the Isles (1968) Conan the Barbarian (1982) Conan the Buccaneer (1971) Conan the Liberator (1979) The Return of Conan (1957)

Short stories	"Black Sphinx of Nebthu" (1973) "The Treasure of Tranicos" (1953) "Black Tears" (1968) "The Blood-Stained God" (1955) "The Castle of Terror" (1969) "The City of Skulls" (1967) "The Curse of the Monolith" (1968) "Drums of Tombalku" (1966) The Flame Knife (1955/81) "The Frost Giant's Daughter" Conan (1953) "The Gem in the Tower" (1978) "The God in the Bowl" (1952) "The Hall of the Dead" (1967) "Hawks Over Shem" (1955) "The Ivory Goddess" (1978) "The Lair of the Ice Worm" (1969) "Legions of the Dead" (1978) "Moon of Blood" (1978) "The People of the Summit" (1970/78) "Red Moon of Zembabwei" (1974) "The Road of the Eagles" (1955) "Shadows in the Dark" (1978) "Shadows in the Skull" (1975) "The Snout in the Dark" (1969) "The Star of Khorala" (1978) "The Thing in the Crypt" (1967) "The Witch of the Mists" (1972) "Wolves Beyond the Border" (1967)

Collections	Conan (1967) The Conan Chronicles (1989) The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990) Conan of Aquilonia (1977) Conan of Cimmeria (1969) Conan the Adventurer (1966) Conan the Avenger (1968) Conan the Freebooter (1968) Conan the Swordsman (1978) Conan the Usurper (1967) Conan the Wanderer (1968) Sagas of Conan (2004) Tales of Conan (1955) The Treasure of Tranicos (1980)

Other speculative fiction

Novels	The Carnelian Cube (1948) Genus Homo (1950) The Glory That Was (1960) The Great Fetish (1978) Land of Unreason (1942) Lest Darkness Fall (1941) None But Lucifer (1939) Solomon's Stone (1942)

Short stories	"Aristotle and the Gun" (1958) "The Blue Giraffe" (1939) "The Command" (1938) "Divide and Rule" (1939) "Employment" (1939) "The Gnarly Man" (1939) "A Gun for Dinosaur" (1956) "The Hardwood Pile" (1940) "Hyperpilosity" (1938) "Internal Combustion" (1956) "The Isolinguals" (1937) "Judgment Day" (1955) "Living Fossil" (1939) "The Merman" (1938) "Nothing in the Rules" (1939) "The Reluctant Shaman" (1947) "The Stolen Dormouse" (1941) "The Wheels of If" (1940)

Collections	Aristotle and the Gun (2002) The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (1978) Divide and Rule (1948) Footprints on Sand (1981) A Gun for Dinosaur (1963) The Purple Pterodactyls (1980) The Reluctant Shaman (1970) Rivers of Time (1993) Scribblings (1972) Sprague de Camp's New Anthology (1953) Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953/78) The Undesired Princess (1951) The Virgin & the Wheels (1976) The Wheels of If (1948) Years in the Making (2005)

Historical fiction

Novels	The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961) The Arrows of Hercules (1965) An Elephant for Aristotle (1958) The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960) The Golden Wind (1969)

Fiction edited

Anthologies	The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967) The Spell of Seven (1965) Swords and Sorcery (1963) Tales Beyond Time (1973) 3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1972) Warlocks and Warriors (1970)

Single author	Conan the Conqueror (1967) Conan the Warrior (1967) The Wolf Leader (1950)

Nonfiction

Science and history	The Ancient Engineers (1963) Ancient Ruins and Archaeology (1964) Antarctic Conquest (1949) The Ape-Man Within (1995) Darwin and His Great Discovery (1972) The Day of the Dinosaur (1968) Elephant (1964) Energy and Power (1962) Engines (1959) The Evolution of Naval Weapons (1947) The Fringe of the Unknown (1983) Great Cities of the Ancient World (1972) The Great Monkey Trial (1968) The Heroic Age of American Invention (1961) Inventions and Their Management (1937) Man and Power (1961) The Ragged Edge of Science (1980) Rubber Dinosaurs and Wooden Elephants (1996) Spirits, Stars, and Spells (1966) The Story of Science in America (1967)

Lit crit and biography	Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages (1975) The Conan Reader (1968) Dark Valley Destiny (1983) Lands Beyond (1952) Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers (1976) Lost Continents (1954) Lovecraft: A Biography (1975) The Miscast Barbarian (1975) Science-Fiction Handbook (1953/75) Time and Chance (1996)

Nonfiction edited

Multi-author	The Blade of Conan (1979) The Conan Grimoire (1972) The Conan Swordbook (1969) The Spell of Conan (1980)

Single author	To Quebec and the Stars (1976)

Poetry

Demons and Dinosaurs (1970) Heroes and Hobgoblins (1981) Phantoms and Fancies (1972)

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