From the back cover:
"The full moon of Plowing Night cruised slowly over them and sank into films and layers of cloud. Men and women got to their feet and breathed cold air and left the well-ploughed field. Everything would go right this year . . ."
It is the year 228 BC. In Marob, a village on the shores of the Black Sea, the beautiful young witch Erif Der is compelled by her father to marry his rival Tarrik the Corn King, thus becoming the Spring Queen, patroness of the Harvest and of the Plowing Eve. Ruled by her father's will, she must use her magic spells to break Tarrik's formidable powers . . .
But one stormy night Tarrik rescues from shipwreck Sphaeros the Stoic, an Hellenic, philosopher. Sphaeros, in turn, saves Tarrik from death an breaks the enchantment that has bound him. So begins for Tarrik a Quest -- a fabulous voyage of discovery which will bring him new knowledge and which will unite him to his Spring Queen.
We travel enthralled over 2000 years into the past, to encounter ancient civilisations of tenderness and brutality, beauty and sheer magic which as the story unfolds, become profoundly and radiantly alive.
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Wikipedia in English (1)
1
It is partially set in Sparta at a time when they were trying to re-introduce the old Spartan system after it had fallen out of use and the nobility had reverted to the pursuit of luxury like the other Greek cities. In the book the king and his supporters are very idealistic about their plans for social engineering, and the new system starts with all debts being cancelled, and the land and wealth shared out equally among the men, so it is very popular with the poorer citizens. I re-read it just after seeing a three part documentary about Sparta, and the harshness and cruelty of the system isn't apparent in this story. (