Gryllus, formerly a cook during the Trojan War, is now a pig—a talking pig. He was among Odysseus’s band of wayward home-seekers who ended up on the wrong end of Circe’s wand. When the rest returned to human form, Gryllus (pronounced GRILL-us) intentionally stayed a pig . . . because it was easier! Now, Junior Assistant Assistant Pythia-in-Training Sybil has pignapped him and informed him that due to her own prophecy, he must now help her save the cosmos. The two of them set off first to find a specific goatherd, who seems to give imbeciles a bad name—which couldn’t be worse than his own (Bumscruff). With the help of a young poet (Homer, yes that one) they must save man and Gods from Thanatos, spirit-thingie-god of death. Gryllus’s main contribution tends to be sarcastic commentary and an insistence on running away whenever possible. Playing fast and loose with all things Greek (especially the mythology) and piling on the anachronistic phrases and references, Shipton delivers a hilarious whiz-bang tour through the pantheon of Greece; it even includes a handy glossary for barbarians. (Fiction. 10-14)
