Beware of Greeks.

I had a friend many years ago who was toiling, thanklessly, at an agency well-known for its back-stabbing and its politics.

She called me one morning, to gripe, to commiserate, to do what advertising people do as regularly as they exchange dirty air for clean.

"How are things," I asked her, "at Advertising's House of Atreus?"

She laughed and launched into a galloping tirade about this or that.

Just recently I read Colm Toibin's novel, "House of Names," a modern and masterful retelling of the ancient Greek morality tales.

Let's summarize.

1. Agamemnon and his troops are stalled away from Troy due to contrary winds.
2. The gods won't change the winds until Agamemnon sacrifices his eldest daughter, Iphigenia.
3. Agamemnon tells his wife Clytemnestra to bring Iphigenia to the Greek camp where she will marry Achilles.
4. Instead Agamemnon slits Iphigenia's throat as a tribute to the gods.
5. Ten years pass during which time Clytemnestra grows increasingly angry.
6. She takes up with a lover and awaits Agamemnon's return.
7. He returns triumphant. 
8. She gives him a bath and slits his throat.
9. Time passes as Orestes slits his mother's throat.

There might be some bits I missed.

The question is, how do you put all that on your timesheet?