Author(s): JOHN SPURLING

History

In a new companion volume to Arcadian Nights, the lifelong classicist and award-winning novelist brilliantly recasts five Greek myths of legendary male-female pairings. 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. AUTHOR: John Spurling is an award-winning historical novelist and playwright whose plays have been performed on TV, radio and stage, including at the National Theatre. He has reviewed for a range of newspapers, magazines and BBC radio, and was for twelve years the art critic of the New Statesman. He lives in London and formerly in Arcadia, Greece, and is married to the biographer Hilary Spurling.