As in Greenwood's previous retellings of Greek mythological stories of strong women, it's just as difficult to give a different slant to the Electra/House of Atreus myth. She largely succeeds with this interweaving of the Electra/Orestes myth; continuation of Cassandra's story and that of Odysseus. After having offended Poseidon, the sea god, Odysseus is trying desperately to make his way home because he knows of the present events on Ithaca: Penelope and her unwanted suitors. Electra here is an Achaean [Greek] princess; she flees her homeland with her brother Orestes after their double murder of mother and lover, and wanders for years until the gods are finished playing with them and their search for love and a safe haven. She has a dark secret overshadowing her life. Cassandra, the Trojan princess/priestess of Apollo/healer is taken as slave by Agamemnon, after a failed rescue attempt. We meet again the fictional characters not in the original myths: Diomenes called Chryse [the Golden One], Greek priest-healer of Asclepius and his close friend Eumides, the sailor. These two rescue Cassandra from Agamemnon's clutches with Electra's connivance, and begin travelling together. For awhile these five journey together, then go their separate ways. The gods still play with the lives of all of them, although Zeus periodically asks them to stop. Periodically, the gods look into the Pool of Mortal Lives and comment on the action, argue, and decide the next step in these peoples' fates. We do find out the outcome of the gods' wager: the stronger of the two==love or death. Sometimes this novel dragged; I felt there were too many lingering stops on the journeys. I also felt the ending was rushed and tied up things too neatly. ( )