Achilles - warrior, hero, son of a demi-god sea nymph whose presence, oracles claim, is the only thing that will deliver Troy into the hands of the Achaians.

And what does he do when he's dead?

Why, he tells the tale of his life to any shades who will gather to listen.

Conversations with Achilles follows the Greek legend as he retells, in seven sets and with harsh honesty the story of his life and the war with Troy. The greatness and brutality of himself and his fellow warriors, the bickering of the gods, come through with a blend of sharp humor and dark tragedy: we relive his love for his slave-turned-bride Briseis, of his mother's desperate battle to defeat the Fates who declared he would die young in battle.

It is a comic but brutal tale in which we meet the heroes, the villains, the very gods clashed and crashed over Troy's fate-and shaped the life of that war's greatest - or was he? - hero.