An Athenian tragic actor named Nikeratos narrates his career on the fourth-century BC theater circuit, from playing extras in his father's troupe to touring Sicily, where he becomes entangled with Dion of Syracuse and the philosopher Plato in their attempt to reform the tyranny of Dionysios II.
Books mentioned in The Mask of Apollo (9)
The Persians by Aeschylus: “there came back to me my own childish voice, declaiming the Messenger from Salamis, in Aischylos's The Persians”
The Bacchae by Euripides: “And I remembered the last time I had been up here; it was in The Bacchae, appearing as the god to close the play”
The Republic by Plato: “"Have you read nothing of Plato's, then, not even The Republic?" I confessed that this was so”
Symposium by Plato: “Yes, I have read The Symposion once or twice.”
Iliad by Homer: “I read the Iliad through and through, coming back to the passage where Priam tries to keep Hector from the death-fight”
The Odyssey by Homer: “a rusty-voiced rhetor declaimed The Odyssey while his boy passed round the plate”
The Clouds by Aristophanes: “the character arrested me, since I knew him mostly from the lampoon in The Clouds”
The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus: “To see him off smoothly, I commended his reviving that fine old play, The Offering Bearers”
The Trojan Women by Euripides: “The play was Euripides' The Women of Troy”