Owls to Athens
Encyclopedia
Owls to Athens is the fourth book in the Hellenic Traders
Hellenic Traders
Hellenic Traders refers to a series of historical fiction books published by TOR and written by H.N. Turteltaub . The books center around cousins Menedemos and Sostratos who work as seaborne traders in the years following the death of Alexander the Great...

 series by H N Turteltaub
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...

. Like the others in the series it is a work of historical fiction concerning the adventures of a pair of Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 traders from Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

. "Taking owls to Athens" was a contemporary Greek saying, roughly the equivalent of the modern "selling snow to eskimos" or "carrying coals to Newcastle".

Plot

Sostratos and Menedemos arrive in Athens in time for the Dionysia
Dionysia
The Dionysia[p] was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the second-most important festival after the Panathenaia...

. Sostratos spends much of his time visiting with his old teachers. His cousin, Menedemos finds himself having a sexual encounter with an important Athenian woman.

Setting

The setting is Athens in the period of time about thirty years after the death of Alexander the Great. As in the other books in the series, persons and places are frequently given their Greek names rather than the English ones (Sokrates, Platon, etc).
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