The Double Tongue

£9.99

As a young virgin with disturbing psychic powers, Arieka was handed over to the service of the shrine by her parents. She has now spent 60 years as the very medium, the torn mouthpiece, of equivocal mantic utterances from the bronze tripod in the sanctuary beneath the temple. Over a lifetime at the mercy of god and priest and people she has watched the decay of Delphi’s fortunes and its influence in the world.

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Description

Meet the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece in this transporting tale of the classical world by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Bettany Hughes.

Did I believe in what I was doing? Or rather, since I was doing nothing, did I believe in what someone, something was doing to me?

It begins with the half-burnt fish, miraculously restored to life, and the healing of the ill child.

Young Arieka is an unloved misfit, but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest of Apollo, her life is transformed. She is taken to Delphi to become a Pythia: a mouthpiece for the god Apollo, an oracle uttering riddling prophecies from a smoky cave to frenzied crowds.

But when this role is dramatically thrust upon her, the priestess must navigate political conspiracy and the threat of the Romans to preserve her belief – and sanity.

‘A remarkable work … A compelling storyteller as well as a clear-eyed philosopher of the dangerous puzzles of being human.’ The Timesx

‘A marvellously apt surprise … Will excite, tantalize and enthral Golding devotees.’ Sunday Times

‘Most brilliantly and hair-raisingly evoked.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A wonderful central character. The story stretches out as clean and dry and clear as the beach in Lord of the Flies.’ Independent

Additional information

Weight 189 g
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 1.3 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

320

Language

English

Edition

Reprint

Dewey

823.914 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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