Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Zeus; these are all gods and goddesses from Hellenic (ancient Greek) mythology who have been worshiped and prayed to by the people of Hellas for millennia, although not today, but the gods were the center of life in Hellas. The Hellenes prayed, worshiped, sacrificed animals, gave up wine and food, and revered the gods because of their power and authority over them. Hoplite: The Torch of Prometheus, by Michael Pritsos, is set in the eighteenth year of the Peloponnesian War (413 BC) in Greece. The main character, Maxites, is the adopted son of King Diocrates of a fictional polis called Devanum. Through hardships, near-death experiences, nightmares and visions, conversations with the gods, and the loss of nearly everyone he loves, Maxites learns to lead, follow orders, suffer losses, and survive under the harshest conditions. The dominant Hellenistic culture, as depicted in this novel, negatively impacted and influenced those living in Greece at the time. This ancient culture oppressed the Hellenes specifically through gender roles, family, and community. By oppressing these people, Hellenistic culture did not give these people the human rights they deserved. To begin with, the first way the Hellenes were negatively affected by their culture was through gender roles, these gender roles also took away the rights of the Hellenes. . When Maxites leaves Devanum to meet his future wife, he enters his polis called Sunium and helps his own men of Devanum build a wall of protection around Sunium to keep those of Sunium safe from the wrath of the barbaric Spartans. While he and his men worked, Adara (his future wife) and some other women of Sunium fed them and gave them water. In a......middle of paper......three. Network. April 11, 2014. .lPomeroy, Sarah B. Dee, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. London: Robert Hale, 1975. Books.google.ca. Google, May 18, 2011. Web. April 10, 2014. "Slavery in Ancient Greece." Slavery in ancient Greece. Np, nd Web. 23 April 2014. .Villing, Alexandra. The Ancient Greeks: Their Lives and Their World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010. Print.Wilson, Nigel G. “Prostitution.” Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. 2006. Print.Pritsos, Michael. Hoplite: Prometheus' Torch. BookSurge Publishing, 2008. Print.