# List of fiction set in ancient Greece

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

* Poul Anderson, The Dancer from Atlantis (1971)

#### Crete
##### Daedalus

* Michael Ayrton
** The Testament of Daedalus (1962)
** The Maze Maker (1967)
* Erick Berry, Winged Girl of Knossos (1933)
* Ernst Schnabel, Story for Icarus (1958)

##### 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"
** The King Must Die (1958)
** The Bull from the Sea (1962)
* Tony Robinson & Richard Curtis, Theseus: The King Who Killed the Minotaur (1988)
* Fred Saberhagen, Ariadne's Web (2000)
* Ian Serraillier, The Way of Danger (1962)
* Althea Urn, Five Miles from Candia (1959)

##### Miscellaneous Minoan

* Moyra Caldecott, The Lily and the Bull (1979)
* Paul Capon, The Kingdom of the Bulls (1961)
* Kristmann Gudmundsson, Winged Citadel (1940)
* Nikos Kazantzakis, At the Palaces of Knossos (1981)
* Dmitri Merezhkovsky, The Birth of the Gods (1924)
* S.V. Peddle (Vince Peddle & Sandra Peddle), The Moon Maiden (2003)
* Richard Purtill
** The Golden Gryphon Feather (1979)
** The Stolen Goddess (1980)
* Thomas Burnett Swann
** The Forest of Forever (1971)
** Cry Silver Bells (1977)
** The Day of the Minotaur (1966)
* James Watson, The Bull Leapers (1970)

#### Hercules, Jason et al.

* Ivor Bannet, The Amazons (1948)
* Otar Chiladze, A Man Was Going Down the Road (1973)
* John Gregory Betancourt
** Hercules: The Gates of Hades (2001)
** Hercules: The Vengeance of Hera (1997)
** Hercules: The Wrath of Poseidon (1997)
* 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, Medea: A Novel (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
** Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow (2005)
** Troy: Shield of Thunder (2006)
* 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
** Against the Tide of Years (1999)
** On the Oceans of Eternity (2000)
* 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

* John Erskine, The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1925)
* Margaret George, Helen of Troy (2006)
* H. Rider Haggard & Andrew Lang, The World's Desire (1890)
* Eva Hemmer Hansen, Scandal in Troy (1956)
* Kevin Mathews, Helen of Troy (1965)
* Richard Purtill, The Mirror of Helen (1983)
* Miranda Seymour, Goddess (1979)
* Edward Lucas White, Helen (1925)

#### Cassandra

* Hilary Bailey, Cassandra, Princess of Troy (1993)
* Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Firebrand (1987)
* Kerry Greenwood, Cassandra (1995)
* Ursule Molinaro, The Autobiography of Cassandra, Princess and Prophetess of Troy (1979)
* Georgia Sallaska, Priam's Daughter (1970)
* Christa Wolf, Cassandra (1983)

#### 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, Penelope's Man: The Homing Instinct (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
** Odysseus: The Greatest Hero of Them All (1986)
** Odysseus: The Journey through Hell (1987)
* 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, Venus: The Lonely Goddess (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, Power Dreamers: The Jocasta Complex (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

* Mel Odom, Young Hercules (1999)

### Archaic Greece
#### Sappho

* Peter Green, The Laughter of Aphrodite (1965)
* Erica Jong, Sappho's Leap (2003)
* Martha Rofheart, Burning Sappho (1974)
* Thomas Burnett Swann, Wolfwinter (1972)

#### Aesop

* John Vornholt, The Fabulist (1993)

#### Miscellaneous Archaic

* Georg Ebers, An Egyptian Princess (1864)
* Ernst Eckstein, Aphrodite (1886)
* Nigel Frith, Olympiad (1988)
* Tom Holt, Olympiad (2000)
* David Pownall, The Sphinx and the Sybarites (1993)
* Mary Ray, The Voice of Apollo (1964)
* Mary Renault, The Praise Singer (1979)
* George R. Stewart, Years of the City (1955)
* Ivan Yefremov, The Land of Foam (1958)

### 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
** Soldier of the Mist (1986)
** Soldier of Arete (1989)
** Soldier of Sidon (2006)

#### Pericles and/or Aspasia

* Gertrude Atherton, The Immortal Marriage (1927)
* Taylor Caldwell, Glory and the Lightning (1974)
* Robert Hamerling, Aspasia (1875)
* W. Savage Landor, Pericles and Aspasia (1836)
* Margery Lawrence, The Gate of Yesterday (1960)
* Rex Warner, Pericles the Athenian (1963)

#### Alcibiades

* Gertrude Atherton, The Jealous Gods (1928)
* Charles H. Bromby, Alkibiades (1905)
* Daniel Chavarría, The Eye of Cybele (2002)
* Anna Bowman Dodd, On the Knees of the Gods (1908)
* Peter Green, Achilles His Armour (1955)
* Gertrude R. Levy, The Violet Crown (1954)
* M. Pardoe, Argle's Oracle (1959)
* Steven Pressfield, Tides of War (2000)
* Rosemary Sutcliff, The Flowers of Adonis (1969)

#### Socrates

* Paul Levinson, The Plot to Save Socrates (2006)
* Cora Mason, Socrates (1953)
* Fritz Mauthner, Mrs. Socrates (1926)
* Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine (1956)
* Geoffrey Trease, The Crown of Violet aka Web of Traitors (U.S.) (1952)

#### Miscellaneous 5th century

* A. J. Church, Callias: A Tale of the Fall of Athens (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, Charmione: A Tale of the Great Athenian Revolution (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, The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta (2005)
* Jan Parandowski, The Olympic Discus (1939)
* Mary Renault
** The Mask of Apollo (1966)
** The Praise Singer (1978)
* 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

* Michael Curtis Ford, The Ten Thousand (2001)
* Xenophon of Ephesus, Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes (2nd century)

#### 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
** The House of Death (2001)
** The Godless Man (2002)
** The Gates of Hell (2003)
* Maurice Druon (Maurice Kessel), Alexander the God (1960)
* David Gemmell
** Lion of Macedon (1990)
** Dark Prince (1993)
* Tom Holt, Alexander at the World's End (1999)
* Nikos Kazantzakis, Alexander the Great (1941)
* Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon (1946)
* Valerio Massimo Manfredi
** Alexander: Child of a Dream (2001)
** Alexander: The Sands of Ammon (2001)
** Alexander: The Ends of the Earth (2001)
* Klaus Mann, Alexander: a Novel of Utopia 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
** Fire from Heaven (1969) — the early life of Alexander the Great
** The Persian Boy (1972) — Alexander the Great after his conquest of Persia
** Funeral Games (1981) — the successors of Alexander
* Katherine Roberts, The Mausoleum Murder (2003)
* Melissa Scott, A Choice of Destinies (1986)
* Judith Tarr
** Lord of the Two Lands (1993)
** Queen of the Amazons (2004)
* 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
** The Arrows of Hercules (1965)
** An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
* 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
** The Sisters (1880)
** Arachne (1898)
* 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
** The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960)
** The Golden Wind (1969)
* 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
** Over the Wine Dark Sea (2001)
** The Gryphon's Skull (2002)
** The Sacred Land (2003)
** Owls to Athens (2004)
* Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros (1930)

### 1st century BCE

* William Golding, The Double Tongue (1995)

### 2nd century CE

* Achilles Tatius, The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon (2nd century)
* Heliodorus of Emesa, Aethiopica or Theagenes and Chariclea (2nd century)
* Longus, Daphnis and Chloe (2nd century)
* Lucian, True History (2nd century AD), not necessarily set anywhere near Greece

## Plays

* Andrew David Irvine, Socrates on Trial
* Terence Rattigan, Adventure Story
* William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
* William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
* William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
* William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen

## Comics

* Marvel Illustrated, The Iliad
* Marvel Illustrated, The Odyssey
* Marvel Illustrated, The Trojan War
* Frank Miller, 300
* Eric Shanower, Age of Bronze