List of fiction set in ancient Greece explained
There is a body of ancient and modern fiction set in ancient Greece and ancient Greek culture, including Magna Graecia and Hellenistic kingdoms. Titles include:
Books
Bronze Age and mythistoricals
Atlantis
Crete
Daedalus
Theseus, Ariadne, Circe, Phaedra
- Eleanor Farjeon, Ariadne and the Bull (1945)
- André Gide, Theseus (1946)
- Roger Lancelyn Green, Mystery at Mycenae (1957)
- Madeline Miller, Circe (2018)
- Steven Pressfield, Last of the Amazons (2002)
- Mary Renault, "Thesead"
- Tony Robinson & Richard Curtis, (1988)
- Fred Saberhagen, Ariadne's Web (2000)
- Ian Serraillier, The Way of Danger (1962)
- Althea Urn, Five Miles from Candia (1959)
Miscellaneous Minoan
Hercules, Jason et al.
- Ivor Bannet, The Amazons (1948)
- Otar Chiladze, A Man Was Going Down the Road (1973)
- John Gregory Betancourt
- Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red (1998)
- Ken Catran, Voyage with Jason (2000)
- Keith DeCandido
- Cheiron's Warriors (1999)
- The Ares Alliance (2000)
- Tobias Druitt, Corydon and the Island of Monsters (2005)
- Robert Graves, The Golden Fleece (U.K.) aka Hercules, My Shipmate (U.S.) (1945)
- Kerry Greenwood, Medea (1997)
- Edison Marshall, Earth Giant (1960)
- Fred Saberhagen
- God of the Golden Fleece (2001)
- The Arms of Hercules (2000)
- The Face of Apollo (1999)
- Ian Serraillier, The Clashing Rocks (1963)
- Miranda Seymour, Medea (1972)
- Henry Treece, Jason (1961)
- Christa Wolf, (1998)
- Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris, Jason and the Gorgon's Blood (2004)
Trojan War
- Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls (2018)
- Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Firebrand (1987)
- Nancy Bogen, Klytaimnestra, Who Stayed at Home (1980)
- Lindsay Clarke, The War at Troy (2004)
- Elizabeth Cook, Achilles (2003)
- Caroline B. Cooney, Goddess of Yesterday (2002) (aka On the Seas to Troy, UK, 2004)
- Donald Cotton, The Myth Makers, a Doctor Who serial (1965)
- Gordon Doherty
- The Crimson Throne (2021)
- The Shadow of Troy (2021)
- The Dark Earth (2022)
- Bernard Evslin, The Trojan War (1971)
- David Gemmell
- Adèle Geras, Troy (2000)
- Noel B. Gerson, The Trojan (1962)
- Roger Lancelyn Green, The Luck of Troy (1961)
- Judith Hand, The Amazon and the Warrior (2004)
- Terence Hawkins, The Rage of Achilles (2009)
- Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships (2019)
- Tom Holland, The Poison in the Blood (2006)
- Jack Lindsay, Cressida's First Lover (1931)
- Valerio Massimo Manfredi, The Talisman of Troy (2004)
- Colleen McCullough, The Song of Troy (1998)
- Maude Meagher, The Green Scamander (1933)
- Mark Merlis, An Arrow's Flight (1998)
- Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles (2011)
- Christopher Morley, The Trojan Horse (1937)
- Phillip Parotti
- The Greek Generals Talk (1986)
- The Trojan Generals Talk (1988)
- Richard Powell, Whom the Gods Would Destroy (1970)
- Laura Riding, A Trojan Ending (1937)
- S.P. Somtow, The Shattered Horse (1986)
- S. M. Stirling
- Rex Stout, The Great Legend (1916)
- Henry Treece, The Windswept City (1967)
- Barry Unsworth, The Songs of the Kings (2002)
- Tyrone Walls, To Die Like an Amazon (2002)
Helen
Cassandra
Odysseus
- John Arden, Cogs Tyrannic (1991)
- Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad (2005)
- Lindsay Clarke, The Return from Troy (2005)
- H. C. Crew, The Lost King (1929)
- John Erskine, (1928)
- François Fénelon, The Adventures of Telemachus (1699)
- Adèle Geras, Ithaka (2000)
- Robert Graves, Homer's Daughter (1955)
- Eyvind Johansson, Return to Ithaca (1952)
- Eden Phillpotts, Circé's Island (1926)
- Tony Robinson & Richard Curtis
- Paul Shipton, The Pig Scrolls (2004)
- Ernst Schnabel, The Voyage Home (1958)
- Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris, Odysseus in the Serpent Maze (2001)
Miscellaneous Mycenaean
- John Barth, Chimera (1972)
- Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (1993)
- Paul Capon
- Warrior's Moon (1960)
- Lord of the Chariots (1962)
- Maurice Druon, The Memoirs of Zeus (1964)
- John Erskine, (1949)
- Jackie French, Oracle (2010)
- Roger Lancelyn Green, The Land Beyond the North (1958)
- Kerry Greenwood, Electra (1996)
- Victoria Grossack & Alice Underwood, Iokaste (2004)
- Pierre Louys, The Twilight of The Nymphs (1928)
- Ursule Molinaro, (1995)
- Phillip Parotti, Fires in the Sky (1990)
- John Cowper Powys, Atlantis (1954)
- Steven Pressfield, Last of the Amazons (2002)
- Mary Ray
- Standing Lions (1968)
- Shout against the Wind (1970)
- Song of Thunder (1978)
- The Golden Bees (1984)
- Georgia Sallaska
- Three Ships and Three Kings (1969)
- The Last Heracles (1974)
- Gladys Schmitt, Electra (1966)
- Ian Serraillier, The Gorgon's Head (1961)
- George Shipway
- Warrior in Bronze (1977)
- King in Splendour (1979)
- Henry Treece
- The Golden One (1961)
- Electra (1963)
- Oedipus (1964)
Based on a television program
Archaic Greece
Sappho
Aesop
Miscellaneous Archaic
5th century BCE
Persian Wars
- John Buchan, The Moon Endureth (short story "The Lemnian") (1912)
- John Burke, The Lion of Sparta (1961)
- Christian Cameron, The Long War
- Killer of Men (2010)
- Marathon (2011)
- Poseidon's Spear (2012)
- The Great King (2014)
- Salamis (2015)
- The Rage of Ares (2016)
- William Stearns Davis, A Victor of Salamis: A Tale of the Days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles (1907)
- Clare Winger Harris, Persephone of Eleusis (1923)
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pausanias, the Spartan (1873)
- Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Spartan (2002)
- Jon Edward Martin, In Kithairon's Shadow (2003)
- Roderick Milton, Tell Them in Sparta (1962)
- Margarett Mirley
- The Leave-Takers (2004)
- Dream-Thoughts (2004)
- Trysts (2004)
- Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire (1998)
- Mary Renault, The Lion in the Gateway (1964)
- Caroline Snedeker
- The Perilous Seat (1923)
- The Spartan (1911)
- L. Sprague de Camp, The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
- Gore Vidal, Creation (1982)
- Jill Paton Walsh, Farewell, Great King (1972)
- Gene Wolfe
Pericles and/or Aspasia
Miscellaneous 5th century
- A. J. Church, (1892)
- I. O. Evans, Olympic Runner (1955)
- Richard Garfinkle, Celestial Matters (1996)
- Tom Holt, Walled Orchard series
- Goatsong: A Novel of Ancient Athens (1989)
- The Walled Orchard (1991)
- John Galen Howard, Pheidias (1929)
- Noel Langley, Nymph in Clover (1948)
- Edward Leatham, (1859)
- Jon Edward Martin, Shades of Artemis (2004)
- Iona McGregor, The Snake and the Olive (1974)
- Naomi Mitchison, Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925)
- George Moore, Aphrodite in Aulis (1931)
- Nicholas Nicastro, (2005)
- Jan Parandowski, The Olympic Discus (1939)
- Mary Renault
- Caroline Snedeker, Theras and His Town (1925)
- José Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders (2002)
- Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Street of the Flute-Player (1912)
- Arthur S. Way, Sons of the Violet-Crowned (1929)
- Christoph Martin Wieland,
- The Story of Agathon (1766-7)
- The Republic of Fools (1774)
- Frank Yerby, Goat Song (1967)
4th century BCE
Xenophon
Alexander the Great
- Anna Apostolou
- A Murder in Macedon (1997)
- A Murder in Thebes (1998)
- Konrad Bercovici, Alexander (1928)
- Ben Bova, Orion and the Conqueror (1994)
- Mary Butts, The Macedonian (1933)
- Christian Cameron, God of War (2012)
- A. J. Church, A Young Macedonian in the Army of Alexander the Great (1890)
- Paul C. Doherty
- Maurice Druon (Maurice Kessel), Alexander the God (1960)
- David Gemmell
- Tom Holt, Alexander at the World's End (1999)
- Nikos Kazantzakis, Alexander the Great (1941)
- Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon (1946)
- Valerio Massimo Manfredi
- Klaus Mann, 1929)
- Edison Marshall, The Conqueror (1962)
- Aubrey Menen, A Conspiracy of Women (1965)
- Naomi Mitchison, The Young Alexander the Great (1960)
- Marshall Monroe Kirkman
- Iskander (1903)
- The Romance of Alexander and Roxana (1909)
- The Romance of Alexander the King (1909)
- Nicholas Nicastro, Empire of Ashes (2004)
- Scott Oden, Memnon (2006)
- Robert Payne, Alexander the God (1954)
- Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War (2005)
- Mary Renault, Alexander trilogy
- Katherine Roberts, The Mausoleum Murder (2003)
- Melissa Scott, A Choice of Destinies (1986)
- Judith Tarr
- Jakob Wasserman, Alexander in Babylon (1949)
- Ivan Yefremov, Thais of Athens (1972)
Miscellaneous 4th century
- Gillian Bradshaw, The Sand-Reckoner (2000) about Archimedes
- Bryher, Gate to the Sea (1958)
- Margaret Doody, Aristotle and Stephanos series
- Aristotle Detective (1978)
- Aristotle and the Fatal Javelin (1980)
- Aristotle and Poetic Justice (2000)
- Aristotle and the Secrets of Life (2002)
- Anello di bronzo ("Ring of Bronze") (2003)
- Poison in Athens (2004)
- Mysteries of Eleusis (2005)
- John Gardner, The Wreckage of Agathon (1970)
- Noel Gerson, The Golden Lyre (1963)
- William Kotzwinkle, Night Book (1974)
- Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Tyrant (2005)
- Ursule Molinaro, The New Moon with the Old Moon in Her Arms (1990)
- Mary Renault, Mask of Apollo (1966)
- Katherine Roberts, The Olympic Conspiracy (2004)
- Barnaby Ross, The Scrolls of Lysis (1962)
- José Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders (2002)
- L. Sprague de Camp
- F. Van Wyck Mason, Lysander (1957)
- Peter Vansittart, A Choice of Murder (1992)
Hellenistic
- Gillian Bradshaw, The Sand-Reckoner (2000)
- Chariton of Aphrodisias, Chaereas and Callirhoe (1st century)
- Christian Cameron
- Tyrant (2008)
- Storm of Arrows (2009)
- Funeral Games (2010)
- King of the Bosporus (2011)
- Destroyer of Cities (2013)
- Force of Kings (2014)
- Alfred Duggan, Elephants and Castles (1963)
- Georg Ebers
- I. O. Evans, Strange Devices (1950)
- Vardis Fisher, The Island of the Innocent (1952)
- William Golding, The Double Tongue (1995)
- Joan Grant, Return to Elysium (1947)
- H.D., Hedylus (1928)
- Jack Lindsay, Come Home at Last (1934)
- Naomi Mitchison, The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1930)
- Eden Phillpotts, The Treasures of Typhon (1924)
- Carolyn Snedeker, The Forgotten Daughter (1933)
- L. Sprague de Camp
- Duncan Sprott
- The House of the Eagle (2004)
- Daughter of the Crocodile (2006)
- H. N. Turteltaub, "Hellenic Traders" series, set some time after the death of Alexander
- Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros (1930)
1st century BCE
2nd century CE
Plays
Comics
See also
External links
