The Pomegranate Ring

Long before Troy, the legend of Achilles was forged...The Pomegranate Ring is a historical novel set in late Bronze Age Greece. Peleus, king of Thessaly and father of Achilles, broods on his lost youth and the search for the Golden Fleece. His wife, Thetis, plans to change Achilles’ fate, as the oracles say he is doomed. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, threatens Peleus, wanting a unified Greece. Meanwhile, on Lesbos, the young Lyria’s father is murdered. With her friend Orpheus, they flee and arrive at the court of Peleus and strike up a friendship with the boy Achilles, who is unhappy with his destiny. Not a natural athlete, he does not see himself as Greece’s saviour. At the same time, Agamemnon sends the beautiful but ruthless Helen to spy on Peleus. Achilles is sent to Epiros to train with Phoenix. Lyria soon follows and a love affair begins. But Achilles is unsure of her egalitarian ideas of love and she leaves heartbroken. Peleus knows he must face Agamemnon. The Delphic oracle has been desecrated and Greece is on the edge of war. Thetis is banished and wanders the beach crying for her son... Will Achilles accept his fate? Can Peleus reconcile his glorious past with his uncertain future? Will Helen succeed with her own plans, and will Orpheus resist her advances? Providing an inventive twist on classical Greek myth, The Pomegranate Ring will appeal to all those with a love of Ancient Greece and the legends of Achilles.

Simon Brian Cartlidge has degrees in philosophy and psychology, and studied creative writing and poetry for two years at Glamorgan University. He has also had poetry published in various anthologies. He has a large tattoo of Achilles on his left arm...