Goat Song

Captured and sold into slavery, he realises that Athens is a centre for culture and knowledge, things denied him during his harsh upbringing.

Adopted by a wealthy Athenian knight, he studies under Socrates and learns the art of armour making, becoming a rich man.

It is only after many years of heartache, battles and death, when he meets the slave girl Cleothera, that he realises that in order to marry her, he must give up his dream of becoming an Athenian citizen.

The title, a literal Greek etymology of the word 'tragedy', refers to advice given to Ariston as a desirable young man by a much older mentor: "So dance to the goat song while you can; hark to the panpipes in the hills.

But though the narrator writes as if he was basing the tale on a real individual whose work is mostly lost, there is no actual record of an Ariston who was a friend of Socrates.