45 pages 1 hour read

Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1996

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Symbols & Motifs

Hamiathes’s Gift

Hamiathes’s Gift is the main magical element of The Thief and the object around which the story and character motivations rotate. The stone is of greatest importance to Gen, the magus, and Ambiades, and it represents something different for each of them. To Gen, Hamiathes’s Gift is both a goal and a way to prove himself. Selection of the future queen of Eddis relies on him retrieving the stone, which he does because it benefits his country. Moreover, the challenge of retrieving the stone and successfully delivering it to Eddis is a personal quest and test of Gen’s skills. Hamiathes’s Gift is one of the most well-guarded secrets and artifacts of the old gods, and the opportunity to steal it from its hiding place offers him the chance to do something never before recorded in history, a chance Gen’s ego won’t let him pass up. Even after he finds the stone in the maze, Gen then must steal it from the magus and from the Attolians, meaning that Gen has not only stolen it from the gods but also from two enemy nations, a feat that solidifies his confidence in his abilities and status as a master thief.