Orestes flees from his mother's angry ghost, and Orpheus longs for his lost wife. Achilles cannot bring himself to bury Patroclus, and there are some nasty shocks waiting for Odysseus in the underworld. Meanwhile, a young Greek soldier finds himself fighting the same battle again, and again, and again...

Each of these ten short stories is inspired by an ancient Greek or Roman text. They have been drawn from plays and poems, histories and biographies. But what they all have in common, is that they have been enthralling readers for more than two thousand years.