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Summary
Summary
In the tradition of Steven Pressfield and Mary Renault, a seafaring novel of the ancient GreeksThe vast tapestry of the Hellenic world unfolds in this stirring tale of two traders from the island of Rhodes, who range across the wind-blown face of the beautiful and treacherous Mediterranean in search of adventure and profits.In Over the Wine-dark Sea, H. N. Turteltaub transported his readers to the year 310 B.C. and the lives of Menedemos and Sostratos, two sea traders of Rhodes. From the smell of papyrus and ink to the thrumming of sail in the wind and the grunt of the oarsmen, the details of life in a now-vanished world come alive again in his new novel, The Gryphon's Skull, an epic of grand adventure and finely realized characters. Sostratos, long and rangy, intellectual and curious, chases knowledge as ardently as his cousin chases women; Menedemos, nearly as perfect a physical specimen as Alexander himself, is the headstrong man of the sea, his eyes unable to resist the veiled beauties around him . . . including his young stepmother, Baukis, whose voice and form he struggles to ignore.Having profitably returned on the Aphrodite to Rhodes, the two cousins find that war threatens their once free-trading world. Alexander the Great's successors are warring for control of the eastern Mediterranean. The ruthless one-eyed general Antigonos, who draws on the strength of all Anatolia, and his rival Ptolemaios, who controls the endless wealth of Egypt, are each ruthlessly maneuvering for advantage . . . and the neutrality of Rhodes, so essential to commerce, may be coming to an end. Yet though war and rumors of war surround them, Sostratos and Menedemos need to turn a profit. It seems theheight of folly to try one's luck so strenuously, but Sostratos has come into possession of what he is convinced is the skull of the mythical gryphon, the fabled beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. They sail to Athens, intending to sell it to a school of philosophy. And the Egyptian emeralds they've obtained on the cheap promise to make them an even tidier profit. But between the Aphrodite and Athens lie two war fleets, innumerable pirates, and enough n0 danger and intrigue to satisfy even Homer. Unfortunately, it may be more than Sostratos and Menedemos can hope to survive.
Author Notes
H. N. Turteltaub is the pseudonym of a well-known novelist who is also an accomplished historian of the ancient world.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sea-faring merchants Menedemos and Sostratos, the bickering cousins of Over the Wine-Dark Sea, Turteltaub's previous historical novel set in ancient Greece, are back again with an adventure taking them across the Aegean from the free city of Rhodes to glittering Athens. On their way to the city with a cargo of precious goods, they pick up the skull of an unusual bird. The scholarly Sostratos believes it is that of a gryphon, and thus proof of the existence of the mythical beast. The more down-to-earth Menedemos has little interest in the skull's scientific value, but hopes the philosophical schools in Athens will compete to purchase it. On the relatively short journey, they are plagued by pirates and the clashing forces of Egyptian Ptolemaios and Greek Antigonas, as well as the latter's troublesome nephew Polemaios. Despite these obstacles, Menedemos and Sostratos find plenty of time for haggling, with other merchants as well as with each other. Ladies' man Menedemos often courts trouble by ogling other men's wives, although he restrains himself for Baukis, the attractive young second wife of his father. Sostratos, although anxious to see the Athenian philosophers, has time for a delightful dalliance with the beautiful brothel mistress, Metrikhe. The author has spelled names as the Greeks did-Kyklades, Thoukydides, Skythians-and this adds to the fun. In the end, readers will count themselves satisfied with the journey. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The sequel to Over the Wine-Dark Sea (2001) follows the fearless cousins Menedemos and Sostratos from their native Rhodes to Athens and back during one of Greece's worst civil wars. For those just tuning in, Menedemos and Sostratos are a somewhat Patty Duke-ish pair of cousins living shortly after the death of Alexander the Great: Menedemos is a sailor (ambitious, handsome, bold, impatient), while Sostratos is a scholar (cunning, cool-headed, ascetic, calculating). They make a good pair, each complementing the other's weaknesses and strengths, and they're both bankrolled by their wealthy fathers (the merchant brothers Philodemos and Lysistratos), who see the need to look beyond the shores of Rhodes to keep the family fortunes in good shape. The last time out, Menedemos and Sostratos ventured to a then-obscure Rome and returned with untold booty. This time they're off to Athens--hardly uncharted territory in third-century b.c., but a dangerous trip all the same, since just now the Aegean is infested with pirates and the whole of Greece is being rocked by a bloody war between the fleets of Antigonos and Ptolemaios. The cousins need to raise money for their family, since trade is badly in a slump now that war has broken out, and they set off to sell a cache of Egyptian emeralds, along with their rarest treasure of all: a skull that Sostratos believes to be that of a gryphon (the mythological beast part lion, part bird). There are the usual adventures on the high seas (pirates, storms) and a good deal of action on shore (women, politics). But with the help of their faithful skipper Diokles, Menedemos, and Sostratos manage, like Odysseus, to make it home in one piece. Superlative historical adventure, narrated with plenty of action and a good feel for the era.
Booklist Review
Turteltaub (pseudonym of science fiction-fantasy writer Harry Turtledove) serves up more ancient Greek history in this sequel to Over the Wine-Dark Sea (2001). When cousins Menedemos and Sostratos embark from Rhodes in 308 B.C. on a trading expedition, they find the skull of a gryphon, a creature thought to be mythological, in the market in nearby Kaunos. What is simply an old bone to womanizer Menedemos is a treasure to scholar Sostratos, who wants to take it to philosophers in Athens for study. So the skull joins the wares of dye, perfume, ink, and papyrus on a journey involving potential danger, not only from pirates but also from the warring factions of Ptolemaios and Antigonos. This is factually-laden historical fiction, although history is sometimes dispensed awkwardly through dialog rather than through narrative; and while a table of weights, measures, and money is provided, a glossary is sorely missing. But there is appealing camaraderie between the cousins, and no lack of action; and plans for a future voyage, plus unresolved issues, pave the way for more to come. --Michele Leber