Goat Song (1967) is a novel by Frank Yerby describing ancient Sparta and the Peloponnesian War with Athens.
Ariston, a Spartiate, is the hero cursed and blessed by a matchless beauty that was the Hellenic ideal. This was a time of burgeoning culture and festering decadence, of excessive cruelty and sexuality. Here are found the battlefield and the helot slave market, the temple and the brothel, the discourse of Socrates and the Dionysian revel of Alcibiades, the brutal code of Sparta and the brilliant sophistication of Athens. Ariston is enslaved and brought to Athens where he earns his freedom and fortune only to face Sparta as an Athenian.