The Theban Cycle

Imagine a storyteller in ancient Greece who makes his living telling stories about recent events, sometimes only two or three generations after the events took place. How different might these stories be to the ones written down over 500 years later?

Tony Whitefield retells the well-known Greek myth of the Theban Cycle, using the voice of his storyteller Peter. By imagining these ancient stories without the direct influence of gods or supernatural events on the participants, Tony attempts to unravel mythological narratives explaining what might have occurred.

It is the year 1189 BCE, and a group of people have gathered to listen to Peter the storyteller. A Phoenician prince named Kadmus sets off to locate his sister Europa who has mysteriously vanished from their hometown of Tyre. On his journey to find his sister, he meets his wife Harmonia and presents her with two special wedding gifts. Who could have possibly imagined that these simple gifts could play such an important part for generations to come in the story of the city of Thebes.

Tony Whitefield is a retired teacher and academic who lives on the Greek island of Limnos for several months each year. The Theban Cycle is his fifth book.