''Owls to Athens'' is a

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

written by H.N. Turteltaub (a pseudonym of

Harry Turtledove Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...

). It was first published in hardcover by

Forge Books Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

in December 2004. The book was reissued under the author's real name as a trade paperback and ebook by

Phoenix Pick Phoenix Pick is the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor Publishers based in Rockville, Maryland, United States. Phoenix Pick publishes many classic and semi-classic works of science fiction and fantasy. These include '' Dark Unive ...

in March 2015. It is the fourth book of the so-called "

Hellenic Traders Hellenic Traders refers to a series of historical fiction books published by TOR and written by H.N. Turteltaub (a pseudonym of Harry Turtledove). The books center around cousins Menedemos and Sostratos who work as seaborne traders in the years ...

" series of historical novels.

Plot

The book features the continuaing adventures of a pair of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

traders from

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

. Sostratos and Menedemos arrive in Athens in time for the

Dionysia The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) 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 sec ...

. 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.

Title

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

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

depicted on Athenian silver

drachmas The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history: # An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, fro ...

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

being home to large

silver mines Silver mining is the resource extraction, extraction of silver from minerals, starting with mining. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires elaborate technologies. In 2008, ca.25,900 metri ...

Setting

The setting is Athens in 307 BC, sixteen years after the death of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

.''Owls to Athens'', pg. 381, hardcover, Forge/Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. As in the other books in the series, persons and places are frequently given their original Greek names (Sokrates, Platon, etc.) rather than the Latin-derived ones common in English.

References

2004 American novels Hellenic Traders novels Novels set in ancient Greece Forge Books books {{2000s-hist-novel-stub