Alcestis dies, but then she comes back from the dead?’ Ricky hadn’t managed to read to the end of Alcestis and was piecing it together from the others’ descriptions. ‘Yup,’ said Jono. ‘Hercules turns up and mugs Death to get her back.’ Ricky looked mutely at me. I nodded. That summed things up pretty well. ‘So they bury her? Alcestis? Because she’s dead?’ ‘Yes,’ I told him. ‘And then Death comes to get her, and he’s like a person?’ ‘Pluto, the god of the dead, yes.’ ‘And Hercules is who?’ ‘He’s a superhero,’ said Annika. ‘But he doesn’t have a cape.’ ‘He sort of does, actually,’ said Mel. We all turned to her. ‘Does he really?’ I felt guilty. My students shouldn’t know more about a subject than I did. ‘Yes. It’s like a lion skin or something. It’s in pictures of him, on Greek vases and things.’ ‘You’re absolutely right. Well done. You know, we should go to the Museum of Scotland one day and look at the Greek pots they have there.’ ‘Lame.’ I should have known Annika wouldn’t be keen.
