also reading ovids metamorphoses which is slower but seeping in gradually (i'm on book 4, but there's 13). ovid was roman, writing just before the collapse. it's extremely bawdy, maybe bawdy is not the right word, maybe more just outright salacious, sexual. I keep meaninng to post one of the stories, about tiresias, cos it's hilarious, but i've not done cos it would mean copying it all out. the gist of it is that jove (zeus in the greek, jupiter) and his wife juno (hera i guess, in the greek, i think she is one of saturn's daughters) are having a chat one day and jove says to juno, 'women enjoy shagging much more than men' (jove is a notorious womaniser and a lot of the stories are about him being suddenly taken with a nymph and then basically lusting after her, eventually raping her or similar, so that she then turns into a tree or something. his wife is not too far behind him and is also constantly seducing young lads). she says she begs to differ, that blokes get more enjoyment, so jove says, 'i know, we know someone who can settle this row, cos there is this guy tiresias, who has been ofrtunate to experience life as both man and woman'. there's then a short digression where the backstory of this tiresias is explained. he was basically walking along one day, minding his own business, and saw two snakes shagging. and for some rwason, maybe out of disgust i don't know, he decided to strike them with a stick, therefore disturbing the act. so as a curse or retribution for this, whatever, the snakes turned him into a woman! and he lived like that a few years, till one day he was walking along again, and saw two snakes doing the same thing. so he says to himself, hmmm, i wonder if i hit them again, i'll be turned into a man again, and lo and behold, he strikes them and he switches sex again! So anyway, jove brings tiresias up and asks him the question, and tiresias confirms that jove is indeed correct and women do have more pleasure in the bedroom. but juno is pissed off with this judgement so she decides to blind tiresias as punishment! the gods have a deal between themselves that they won't go over each other's actions, so jove is powerless. so he decides to reward tiresias with the gift of prophect, which ensures people are then forever asking him to tell the future.
so there you go, that's the story of tiresias.