The Story Archive

Salammbô

Gustave Flaubert · 1862 CE · Novel · French · Victorian

Carthage, having survived the war with Rome, cannot pay the mercenaries it hired, and the unpaid army turns on the city that used it. Mâtho, a Libyan captain, steals the sacred veil of Tanit out of the temple and fixes on Hamilcar's daughter, priestess of the goddess he has robbed. Flaubert worked from Polybius and a research journey through Tunisia, answering the charge of provincial vulgarity levelled at Madame Bovary with an antiquity nobody could call familiar.

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Attributes

Genre
HistoricalTragedy
Theme
War & ViolenceForbidden LoveFaith & DoubtObsessionWealth & Greed
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Doomed LoversRebel / OutlawRuler / King
Plot structure
Siege / Last StandChronicleTragic Reversal
Symbol / motif
BloodGold / TreasureThe GarmentThe MoonFire
Conflict
vs Personvs Societyvs Fate / Gods
Mode / tone
EpicTragicRomantic
Culture / tradition
French

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