Short Notices

THE MASK OF APOLLO by Mary Renault. 371 pages. Pantheon. $3.95.

Mary Renault's appreciation of the glory that was Greece has produced three fine period novels--The Last of the Wine, The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea--each fondly flavored with enthusiasm and scholarship. In this fourth reconstruction of the Hellenic past, she grapples with the ordeal of Dion of Syracuse, who tried vainly, 24 centuries ago, to convert a tyranny into Plato's ideal city-state. This theme does not easily catch the modern fancy; after all, the roll of centuries has only emphasized the unattainability of Dion's dream. It appears that Author Renault has at last cleaned out the Attic.

THE TROJANS by Wirt Williams. 494 pages. Little, Brown. $6.95.

Lotsa tararara here. All about shooting multimillion-dollar movie epic. Called Helen of Troy. Greek island location. Nine million-dollar budget. Already $5,000,000 over that. Disaster. Fault of Superstar Margaret Dayton. She disappears. How to render Margaret: get the way she fills the blue jeans. Banal but central. She has one hell of a behind. But remember: a schoolgirl animated by sex. Tell about Margaret's sex life. Husband's. Mama's. Producer's. Director's. Agent's. Co-star's. Don't forget character with shoe fetish. Add a little lesbianism. Anything else? No? O.K. Margaret returns. Shooting resumes. Everybody happy. Fade out into wine-dark sea.

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