"Breathtakingly successful." --Michael Dirda, Washington Post
A bold and dynamic retelling of five great male-female pairings from
the Greek myths: Prometheus and Pandora, Jason and Medea, Oedipus and
Antigone, Achilles and Thetis, and Odysseus and Penelope.
Award-winning historical novelist and playwright John Spurling draws on
his lifelong love and knowledge of Classical Greek drama and poetry to
reanimate five great male-female storylines from the Greek myths.
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, John Spurling--a lifelong
classicist and an award-winning playwright--spins five myths for
contemporary readers. These captivating tales center 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--who, in the course of their stories, destroyed dynasties,
raised and felled heroes, and sealed the fates of men.
