Arcadian Days: Gods, Women and Men from Greek Myth

Award-winning historical novelist and playwright John Spurling draws on his lifelong love and knowledge of Classical Greek drama and poetry to reanimate, with vivid wit and zest, five great male–female pairings of Greek myth.

The Greek myths, refined by the great poets and playwrights of Ancient Greece, distil the essence of human life: its brief span, its pride, courage and insecurity, its anxious relationship with the natural world – earth, sea and sky, represented by powerful gods and monsters.

Taking inspiration from the incomparably beautiful and intense poetry of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, Spurling – a lifelong classicist and an award-winning playwright and historical novelist – spins five more myths for contemporary readers. These captivating tales centre on male-female pairs – Prometheus and Pandora, Jason and the sorceress Medea, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone, Achilles and his mother Thetis, Odysseus and Penelope – that destroyed dynasties, raised and felled heroes, and sealed the fates of men.

'John Spurling in his Arcadian tales has done for Greek mythology what Neil Gaiman did for Norse mythology' - Hannah Lynn, author of Athena's Child

'Gods, heroes, monsters, women, men from Greek myth – all human (and inhuman) life is here, beautifully retold. As travel to today's Greece opens up once again, these are the companions to have beside one on the plane, train or boat.' - Paul Cartledge, AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and author of Thebes and The Spartans

Format: Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN: 9780715654569
Publisher: Duckworth Books
Published: 26 May, 2022
Weight: 306 g
Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 35 mm

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