The King Must Die by Mary Renault
1958 - Virago ebook - 342 pages
Theseus, the boy-king of Eleuisis, is ritually preordained to die after one year of marriage to the sacred Queen, but he defies the Gods' decree and claims his inheritance - the throne of Athens. His friends are the young men and maidens, slaves of the Gods, chosen for death in the Bull Dance. His fabled enemy is the monstrous, half-man, half-bull, Minotaur, devourer of sacrificial human flesh. In her classic re-creation of a myth so powerful that its impact has survived down the centuries, Mary Renault has brought to life the world of ancient Greece. For here is the true Atlantis legend, with its culmination in the terrible, fateful destruction of the great Labyrinth, the palace of the house of Minos.
I'm trying desperately to summon up some enthusiasm to write about this book. I've wanted to read it for ages, but Renault's historical novels had been out of print for a while in the UK. Late last year they started to be re-issued, beginning with Fire from Heaven, the first of her trilogy about Alexander the Great. That was the one I really wanted to read but, having also recently bought another book about Alexander, I decided to go for this one instead.
This is the sort of historical fiction that takes a well-known myth or legend and turns it into something more believable, that could actually have happened. I've read other historical fiction in this mould and loved it: Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy and Gemmell's Troy trilogy, to name my favourites. So I was really excited about reading Renault's take on Theseus, Ariadne, the minotaur, etc etc. All the elements are there for a truly brilliant story and, judging by all the comments and reviews I've seen, for the majority of people it's a complete success.
For the first third of the book I thought it was brilliant. I thought I was going to love it. Young Theseus, growing up in Troezen believing he's the son of Poseidon, proves to be a likeable character in the early stages. His relationship with the King of the horses drew me into his world completely it's so beautifully written. And then, of course, when he turns 16 his mother, Aethra leads him to the stone under which his true father has left a sword and a pair of sandals. If Theseus is strong enough to move the rock then Aethra is to tell him of his father's real identity. Renault's Theseus is a small, wiry boy, and he doesn't have the strength to move the rock. But he is quick and clever and he soon enough works it out, and so begins his journey to find his father, and everything after that is the stuff of legend.
So far, so brilliant. But I started to get bogged down around the halfway point. My problem is that I found it all very dry and it takes itself incredibly seriously. It's a tad on the pompous side. I understand that Renault has done a great job of putting the reader completely in those times in terms of setting and attitudes and dialogue, but I can't believe these people were without a sense of humour or a witty turn of phrase. As Theseus heads towards Athens and his future as a bull dancer I started to find him, well, a little tedious. The book is written in the first person, and I found it a tough slog through the inner workings of his mind. By the time I was 80 - 90% of the way through the book I was losing the will to live, struggling to keep my eyes open, and at several points was on the verge of giving up. I really wasn't taking much of it in towards the end. I'd stopped caring.
I so wanted to love this book, and I'm really sad that I found it ultimately so disappointing. The worst part is, it's put me off reading any of her other historical fiction in the foreseeable future.
Oh, and for the record, this being an attempt to create a more believable version of the legend, there are no mythical creatures - so don't expect and actual minotaur to turn up in a labyrinth, cos you'll be sorely disappointed.
