Gene Wolfe's novel follows Latro, a mercenary soldier in ancient Greece who suffers a head wound that erases his memory each day while granting him the ability to see and converse with gods and spirits invisible to others. Latro keeps a journal, inscribing each day's events on a scroll he must reread each morning to learn who he is. Wolfe, whose ornate prose and unreliable narrators characterize all his fiction, uses this device to defamiliarize ancient Greece: Latro encounters familiar figures--Spartans, Athenians, the Persian Wars' aftermath--without understanding their significance, while his divine encounters reveal a world where gods intervene directly in human affairs. The novel is a puzzle: clues about Latro's identity, his wound's cause, and the gods' intentions emerge gradually and require careful reading to piece together. Wolfe draws on genuine scholarship about Greek religion and history while creating something distinctly his own. The book inaugurated a trilogy continued in Soldier of Arete and Soldier of Sidon, following Latro across the ancient Mediterranean. Wolfe, often called the finest stylist in science fiction and fantasy, demonstrates here how genre fiction can achieve literary complexity. The novel rewards rereading, revealing patterns invisible on first encounter.