Product Description

This second instalment in the story of the legendary hero begins with Theseus' triumphant return from Crete after slaying the Minotaur. Having freed the city of Athens from the onerous tribute demanded by the ruler of Knossos - the sacrifice of noble youths and maidens to the appetite of the Labyrinth's monster - Theseus has returned home to find his father dead and himself the new king. But his adventures have only just begun: he still must confront the Amazons, capture their queen, Hippolyta, and face the tragic results of Phaedra's jealous rage. Piecing together the fragments of myth and using her deep understanding of the cultures reflected in these legends, Mary Renault has constructed an enthralling narrative of a time when heroes battled monsters and gods strode the earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60441 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Publisher
Bringing Greek mythology vividly to life, The King Must Die and its sequel, The Bull from the Sea, tell the amazing adventures of Theseus, famous for slaying the Minotaur, defeating the Amazons and rescuing Persephone from the underworld.

About the Author
Mary Renault was educated at Clifton High School, Bristol and St Hugh's College, Oxford. Having completed nursing training in 1937, she then wrote her first novel Promise of Love. Her next three novels were written during off-time duty whilst serving in the war. In 1948 she went to live in South Africa but travelled widely. It was her trip to Greece and her visits to Corinth, Samos, Crete, Delos, Aegina and other islands, as well as to Athens, Sounion and Marathon, that resulted in her brilliant historical reconstructions of Ancient Greece. Mary Renault died in 1983.

Customer Reviews

The Legend Continues
Part two of the Theseus legend (The King Must Die is part one), this book has is essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the history or mythology of Ancient Greece.

Mary Renault has managed, quite uniquely, to turn an ancient legend into a living, historically acceptible and real set of characters. Her artistry is defined in her writing - Theseus, the King, is an ordinary man (with an extraordinary fate thrust upon him) who quickly becomes a close and dear friend. The reader identifies with the character and accepts the deeply researched period of ancient Mycenaean Greek history as though it occurred yesterday - to a friend.

No bookshelf can be complete without at least some of Mary Renault's works and The Theseus saga is a truly definitive place to start!

If only there could be a part 3!!!
The existence of this book is one of those truly life-enhancing experiences, ie when you read a book, think it's one of the best things you've ever read - and then find out there's a sequel! In this case, however, this second volume in the tale of Theseus, the Greek hero-king is so much more than a mere sequel.

The bare bones of the story are well-known, but Mary Renault fleshes them out which such consummate skill that the reader is right THERE with Theseus in the landscape of ancient Greece. There is no doubt that Theseus is a real man, with real problems, real happinesses, and a real LIFE! This story runs from his escape from the fall of Crete and the bull-ring of the Labyrinth to his death - an older, wiser and disillusioned man, but still one who had the courage to master his own fate.

These books should be required reading for students of English literature. Mary Renault's writing never slips. Despite some of the very dramatic, even sentimental, events in the story, her prose never becomes purple - but be warned, you may need your hanky at some points.

Absolutely superb - buy buy buy! Read read read!!!!

Must read!
This follows on from The King Must Die, which begins Renault's epic and yet overwhelmingly human re-telling of the Theseus myth.

The first book tells the story of a young man: this sequel is much darker. Here Theseus tries to re-capture his lost youth in the bull-ring of Knossos before realising that that is an impossibility. Restless, he allows his friend Peirithous to talk him into a pirate expedition where they encounter the Amazons and Theseus falls in love.
The love affair/marriage between him and Hippolyta is one of the most moving relationships in literature, but if you don't know the myth I don;t want to spoil it for you. This is a fine, fine book: imaginative, compelling, enthralling, filled with true emotion and drama. Buy it!