Life in ancient Greece, slow-paced and meticulously reconstructed. Eleven-year-old Aletheia, intrigued at the prospect of serving Artemis, the Hunt Maiden, is also somewhat frightened of leaving home for the first time; once at the temple, however, her misgivings disappear except for one--the traditional sacrifice of her pet bird. Two chance-met characters--aggressive Agarista is a worldly contrast, Nicolaos will be her husband--accelerate her final decision but even so the circumstances are remote and not engrossing for a modern reader despite the well-arranged scenery. Mrs. Coolidge's older fiction has been much firmer.