plot around stolen relic in Athens, historic but strange

Atys is on a mission to retrieve an amethyst stolen from a temple of Cybele and taken to Periclean Athens where it is used in a statue of Athene.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints of a large cast of characters and the language tries to reflect that some characters are narrating events in a language that is foreign to them or are high on drugs, in states of religious ecstasy, or otherwise not quite in their right minds. There were times when I found it very difficult to follow what was actually happening and keep track of who was who. Having read it once, I felt I needed to read it again and keep notes to really understand it, but I'm not at all sure it would repay the effort. ( )