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The Songs of the Kings: A Novel (Unsworth, Barry) by Barry Unsworth is a work of fiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Songs of the Kings: A Novel (Unsworth, Barry) about?

Provocative and subversive, Unsworth's new novel rewrites ancient history to show how a wily, ambitious and power-hungry man can distort the truth, convince the masses to support him and incite his country to wage war. It's an audacious blending of myth with sharp contemporary resonance. The setting is Aulis in 1260 B.C., where unfavorable winds are keeping the fleet of the Greek expeditionary force (actually a motley assemblage of hostile and predatory tribes loosely united under Agamemnon) from setting out to capture Troy. The pretext is revenge for the "rape" of Helen by Paris, but Agamemnon and such tribal leaders as Achilles and Odysseus are, in fact, lusting for the fabled treasures of Troy, spoils of war that each man, down to the most common soldier, yearns to possess. Unsworth (Sacred Hunger) reveals this complex intrigue slowly as he explores the critical situation on which the narrative hinges: the omens that explain Zeus's wrath and the prophecy that only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigeneia, will reverse the contrary winds. We know of this event from Homer, of course, and he appears here as the Singer, a far from noble figure who is influenced by the consp

Who reads The Songs of the Kings: A Novel (Unsworth, Barry)?

Author

Barry Unsworth

Publisher

New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday

Published

2003

Language

EN

ISBN

9780385501149

Category

work of fiction

Subjects

Fiction, Literary Fiction, History

Rating

3.68 / 5 (37 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14