Xerxes, the Great King of Persia invades Greece in 480 B.C. at the head of a massive army. Three hundred Spartans and King Leonidas die heroically blocking the Persian advance at the pass of Thermopylae. The Persians are poised to conquer all of Greece. The only one standing in their way is a woman – Gorgo, Queen of Sparta. Though history has relegated her role to that of a bystander, what if she played a central role in the Greek resistance to the Persian invasion. What if she kept her true role a secret in order to play it more effectively? What if she was hiding other secrets too – dark secrets of murder and vengeance? What if the only person who truly appreciated her genius was an enemy prisoner whom she has vowed to kill? What if after their victory, the Greeks started to turn on each other? What if, eventually, Gorgo had to choose between the security of Sparta and safety of her son? And what if the only one who could find a way out is the same prisoner who had once fought against the Spartans?

A pretext for war across the sea... threats to trade... mistreatment of prisoners... abuse of the dead... upheaval back at home... Familiar? This is not today. It's 3,200 years ago, and the 'threat' is Troy - muscling in on Greek shipping coming through the Dardanelles. For the Spartans, and other Greeks, it's enough to merit intervention; and a woman called Helen is the key. John H Pollard's brilliant take on the Helen of Troy saga (rightly called Helen of Sparta, for she was married to King Menelaus) transports us effortlessly through the Trojan War and its aftermath. Our guide is the uniquely placed Eteoneus, Menelaus' Chief Steward, a shrewd, courageous and surprisingly passionate story-teller. Eteoneus' tale is cloak-and-dagger stuff involving mayhem, deceit, bride substitution, divine jealousy and ritual death. But it's also a glorious picture of life and travel and adventure all those years ago, and shows us a fierce, superstitious yet proud people. They had a long history ahead of them, and only a short while here on their fabled earth. In these pages they live again.

Acclaimed author Margaret George tells the story of the legendary Greek woman whose face "launched a thousand ships" in this New York Times bestseller. The Trojan War, fought nearly twelve hundred years before the birth of Christ, and recounted in Homer's Iliad, continues to haunt us because of its origins: one woman's beauty, a visiting prince's passion, and a love that ended in tragedy. Laden with doom, yet surprising in its moments of innocence and beauty, Helen of Troy is an exquisite page-turner with a cast of irresistible, legendary characters—Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, Menelaus, Priam, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, as well as Helen and Paris themselves. With a wealth of material that reproduces the Age of Bronze in all its glory, it brings to life a war that we have all learned about but never before experienced.

This literary novel explores the passions and motivations of the protagonists and the events of the Trojan War without the machinations of imaginary gods driving their behaviors and actions. Who were the lovers whose coupling ignited the clash of civilizations immortalized by Homer’s Iliad? What was their reality and that of the warriors and the women who were engulfed by the bloody conflict? According to myth, the war was precipitated by Aphrodite who promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen the queen of Sparta, if he declared her winner of a beauty contest of goddesses. That fantasy did not occur nor were the actors’ puppets of invisible deities. So who sent Prince Paris across the ship-devouring Aegean Sea to Sparta and why? Did he abduct and rape Helen while King Menelaus was away or did she abscond with Paris to Troy? Did King Agamemnon of Mycenae lead an armada of unified Greeks to liberate his sister-in-law out of filial concern or for the ulterior reasons his wife Clytemnestra suspected? Why did the war that saw the lethal combats of heroes such as Achilles and Ajax and Odysseus and Hector drag on for ten years when Priam the king of Troy could have ended it by returning Helen? What roles did the Trojan women such as Hecuba and Andromache and Briseus and the self-proclaimed prophetess Cassandra play during the unending siege? What is the truth behind the conflagration of Troy?

This is the first book-length examination of Spartan women, covering over a thousand years in the history of women from both the elite and lower classes. Classicist Sarah B. Pomeroy comprehensively analyzes ancient texts and archaeological evidence to construct the world of these elusive though much noticed females. Sparta has always posed a challenge to ancient historians because information about the society is relatively scarce. Most existing scholarship on Sparta concerns the military history of the city and its heavily male-dominated social structure--almost as if there were no women in Sparta. Yet perhaps the most famous of mythic Greek women, Menelaus' wife Helen, the cause of the Trojan War, was herself a Spartan. Written by one of the leading authorities on women in antiquity, Spartan Women reconstructs the lives and the world of Sparta's women, including how their status changed over time and how they held on to their surprising autonomy. Proceeding through the archaic, classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, Spartan Women includes discussions of education, family life, reproduction, religion, and athletics.

The true story behind the epic love that sparked the Trojan War and has captivated the world for 3,000 years... Helen of Troy, arguably the most infamous woman in ancient history, was not the seductress of Homer's poems. Her humble story began as a Princess of Sparta; honorable, loyal, with promise to become a powerful queen. Her lauded beauty was more curse than blessing, inciting lust and jealousy in the greedy kings who would make her their prize. Given in marriage to Menelaus of Mycenae, an abusive husband who neither wants nor needs her, she clings to a prophecy made to her about a great destiny, and even greater love. That destiny awaits her in Paris, a noble prince of Troy, whose reputation for fairness and fortitude precedes him as an Ambassador. Paris is a haunted figure, unjustly cursed at birth by a dark omen claiming he will cause the destruction of Troy. This omen overshadows his good deeds, making him an object of ridicule amongst the Trojan nobility, and compelling his own mother to try to kill him as a babe. He is a man who has never known love. Until the day the Fates intervene and Paris travels to Mycenae as an Ambassador of Troy. He meets Helen, and two souls linked by common destiny and purpose are reunited. Their love becomes legend, provoking the greatest war of ancient history, shaking the foundations of the world, and paving the way for the rise of Greece and Rome.

Come and take them Book III in the Leonidas Trilogy Persia has crushed the Ionian revolt and is gathering a massive army to invade and punish mainland Greece, but in Sparta the dangers seem closer to home. The Eurypontid king Demaratus is accused of being a usurper, while the Agiad king Cleomenes is going dangerously mad. More and more Spartans turn to Leonidas, Cleomenes's half-brother and son-in-law, to provide leadership. But Leonidas is the younger of twins, and his brother Brotus has no intention of letting Leonidas lay claim to the Agiad throne without a fight. This novel follows Leonidas and Gorgo as they steer Sparta through the dangerous waters of domestic strife and external threat, working together as a team to make Sparta the best it can be. But the forces that will destroy not only Leonidas but his Sparta are already gathering -- not just in Persepolis and Sardis, but in the hubris of a rising Athens and the bigotry and xenophobia of his fellow Spartans. The murder of two Persian ambassadors by an agitated Spartan Assembly sets in train the inevitable conflict between Sparta and Persia that will take Leonidas to Thermopylae -- and into history. This is the third book in a trilogy of biographical novels about Leonidas and Gorgo. The first book, A Boy of the Agoge, described Leonidas's childhood in the Spartan public school. The second, A Peerless Peer, focused on his years as an ordinary citizen. This third book describes his rise to power, his reign, and his death.