Gamelin's profession of painter also reflects on the book's theme. His best work is a depiction of Orestes and Electra, with Orestes resembling a self-portrait of the artist; Gamelin, like Orestes, is capable of killing his family. Élodie later comes to be identified with Electra – though, in her affair with Gamelin, where she loves him first for his mercy and then for his violence, and takes a less radical lover after he dies, she also represents France.[1]
The character of Maurice Brotteaux is very interesting. Without being reactionary, this former noble is well aware of the problems the Revolution faces in this period and finds the charges unjustified. One might think that this character speaks for the author.
The title, Les dieux ont soif, is taken from the last issue of Camille Desmoulins's Le Vieux Cordelier, which criticized the Jacobins; that line in turn was supposedly taken from an Aztec explanation of the necessity of human sacrifice.[2]
The novel includes a wide variety of sexual relationships. In chapter XXI France depicts a brief failed attempt at a same-sex liaison. Julie has been wearing men's clothing to avoid being recognized. A middle-aged man has often smiled at her, expressing what she thought was "discreet sympathy" for her plight. One day when it begins to rain he invites her to share his umbrella. Startled by her voice when she accepts, he runs away, leaving her rainsoaked. "She suddenly understood, and despite her worries could not prevent herself from smiling."
