Lovers' Legends Unbound by Andrew Calimach, Agnes Lev. Timothy Carter and Steve Gorn

In Lovers' Legends Unbound (Haiduk Press, November 2003), we are treated to a theatrical rendition of nine newly uncensored tales. Assembled from primary sources, the tales - unashamed and dignified - illuminate the tradition of Greek male love enshrined in the sacred stories of 2500 years ago. Accompanied by a cloth-bound text illustrated with colour photographs of ancient art, Lovers' Legends Unbound sets free the raw power and emotional truth of ancient myth.

The myths integrate the full scope of human desire with spiritual and moral teachings. Here are Zeus and Ganymede and Hera, the jealous wife; love found and lost in Apollo and Hyacinth; the shamanic story of Tantalus and the Olympians; Pelops in Pisa, who loses a lover and gains a wife; crime and punishment in Laius and Chrysippus; Narcissus and his "secret" lovers; the weakness of the strongest man on Earth in Hercules and Hylas; the gay side of the Trojan war in Achilles and Patroclus; and finally, the prophet of love in Orpheus and the Thracians.

By rendering these myths in their original medium, the spoken word, Lovers' Legends Unbound transports us back to ancient Greece and sits us knee to knee with an ancient bard recounting timeless tales of love, honour, betrayal and revenge. Through Timothy Carter's rich dramatic readings and Steve Gorn's haunting music, we encounter first-hand the depth of meaning of these classic Greek tales. The masterful direction of Agnes Lev, the noted Israeli theater director, brings into vivid relief their subtle and unpredictable nuances, evoking a world alien in the details but intimately familiar in its all-too-human passions.

Calimach is the author of the acclaimed Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths- the source text for the current work, a Lambda Book Award finalist in Children / Young Adults and Spirituality categories. The book was also a Ben Franklin Award finalist and a ForeWord Magazine finalist in Education, and Gay & Lesbian Non-Fiction, receiving the Silver Book-of-the-Year Award in the latter category.

Our view of ancient Greek culture as well as human nature is not complete without an understanding of the way homoerotic sensibilities permeated every aspect of life: war, religion, work and education. Lovers' Legends Unbound allows us to experience first-hand our ancestors' world and their myths, which proclaim that self-indulgence, betrayal, and violence are to be despised and that love is the highest good.

Review of source text in the "Bryn Mawr Classical Review"
Review of source text in "assemblage" - the Sheffield graduate journal of archaeology

For teaching purposes the original text, Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths, may be more appropriate.