1. The King Must Die: A Novel by Mary
Renault
Splendid Interpretation Of The Theseus Myth!
The story of the mythical hero Theseus, slayer of monsters, abductor of
princesses and king of Athens. He emerges from these pages as a clearly
defined personality; brave, aggressive and quick. The core of the story is
Theseus Cretan adventure.
Personal Review: The King Must Die: A Novel by Mary Renault
Mary Renault's style has been much imitated by authors of historical
fiction, but never really matched. In this intelligent, fascinating, and
entertaining retelling of the myth of the ancient Greek hero Theseus, Ms.
Renault has taken a mythological figure and transformed him into an all-
too-human youth, complete with the flaws, foibles, and passions of
adolescence and young adulthood.
The narrative, which is delivered in the first person, begins with Theseus'
childhood; as a fatherless boy, even though a member of a royal family, he

2. faces the insecurity of knowing little about his roots and nothing about the
identity of his father. Slight and relatively small in stature, he longs for the
large, robust physique of a true "hero," and learns to compensate f or his
lack of size by the use of his keen intelligence and wit. As a young man,
clever, aggressive, lusty, and quick-minded if slightly temperamental, he
learns the identity of his father--the king of Athens--and travels to Athens to
meet him, encountering numerous adventures along the way. The storyline
of the traditional Theseus myth is followed, at least in principle: after being
recognized by his father as his son and a prince of Athens, Theseus is
chosen to accompany the group of boys and maidens demanded as tribute
by the powerful ruler of Crete, King Minos. Once in Crete, the little band of
Athenian captives is taken to the royal palace--the Labyrinth--where they
are trained to become a team of bull-leapers, destined to perform the
dangerous and popular sport before the royalty of Crete. The heir to King
Minos' throne, known as the Minotaur, is not the half-man-half-bull of
ancient myth but a hulking, arrogant and boorish fellow (a bully, not a bull)
called Asterion who takes a dislike to the Athenian prince. While plotting to
escape from Crete with his Athenian comrades, Theseus becomes the
lover of the virginal but passionate Cretan princess Ariadne, and must face
down Asterion the Minotaur before he can attempt a flight back to
mainland Greece.
Ms. Renault's wonderful descriptive style makes the world of ancient, pre-
classical, Bronze Age Greece come alive. The cultural differences between
what are now regarded as different regions of the country are made vividly
clear, particularly in her treatment of the "exotic" Cretan court. She exhibits
her familiarity with Minoan art and dress of the period, and with the layout
and decoration of the actual Labyrinth at Knossos (excavated in 1900 by
Arthur Evans). Finally, her characters are imbued with distinct and often
engaging personalities worthy of the reader's attention, and in Theseus we
are given a delightful "mythic hero" of genuinely human proportions.
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