Simonides the poet and singer, born ill-favoured enough totempt his parents to exposing him, grows up with a love f poetry and song and manages to become aprenticed to a wandering poet, embarking on a journey around the Greek Isles, encountering other poets, athletes, Tyrants, warriors, and is on the sidelines of dramatic and bloody events. It's written with Renault's usual piercing beauty and rich powers of description and characterisation, while occasionaly drenching the whole thing in homoeroticism. It even has a well-developed female character, unusual for Renault's historical books. A lovely read.