The King Must Die is a 1958 bildungsroman and historical novel by Mary Renault that traces the early life and adventures of Theseus, a hero in Greek mythology.
A primary theme of the book is the contrast between the advanced but enervated civilisation of Minoan Crete and the assertive developing societies of mainland Greece.
As a young child, Theseus is shocked when he sees the "King Horse", whom he considers a noble beast, ritually sacrificed to the gods.
He is sent to hide in the hills when Cretan ships come to Troizen to take away young boys and girls as tribute to Minos for the bull dancing in Crete.
In Eleusis, a matriarchical and non-Hellene society focused on worship of the Earth mother goddess, it is the custom to sacrifice their king each year.
He takes his guard of Eleusinian youths on hunts to build their independence and camaraderie, killing the great sow Phaia and making war on brigands.
Aigeus, on the urging of his lover Medea, serves him poisoned wine but recognises Theseus's sword and realizes who he is just in time.
Seeing that Asterion had already been anointed with oil, Theseus puts on the mask and sacrifices the dying Minotaur, using a sacred axe.
When Theseus sees her hidden capacity for violence as inherited from the "rotten blood" of a decadent dynasty, he is sickened and loses his love for her.
Crude, ruthless and clever, Asterion has succeeded in isolating his nominal father, the dying Minos, and is positioning himself to take the throne.
Asterion regards Theseus as a "mainland savage" but, desiring the best of everything, purchases the Eleusian leader as a bull-dancer in the way that he might buy a horse with stamina and speed.
Minos: the title given to the rulers of Minoan Crete during the thousand-year history of an advanced and sophisticated civilisation centred on the vast palace (Labyrinth) of Knossos.
On the eve of the great earthquake that destroys the Labyrinth, the last Minos is a sick man who is losing power to his hated heir Asterion.
Acting in collaboration with Persephone she persuades Aigeus to attempt to poison Theseus in return for the lifting of a curse.
Only a few years older than Theseus, he nevertheless respects the other's prowess and intelligence, and joins him to assault the bandit strongholds in the Isthmus.
Like their male counterparts they are varied in personality and background but all are brought together by loyalty to Theseus and the interdependence required by the bull dance.
Sent to collect the tribute of fourteen youths and maidens from Athens, Lukos serves as an example of the polished and sophisticated courtiers of the Labyrinth in contrast to the crude but energetic values of mainland Greece.
Alektryon: a lieutenant of the royal household who acts as an intermediary between the bull-dancers and those palace officials and guards still loyal to Minos.
She is killed in the fighting with Asterion's guards but knowing her gives Theseus a premonition of his doomed future marriage with another Amazon.
[1] Removing the fantastical elements of monsters and the appearances of gods, Renault constructed an archaeologically and anthropologically plausible story that might have developed into the myth.
However, other critics have viewed Renault's depiction of ancient Crete as based on flawed theories and taking significant imaginative liberties.
[4] Poul Anderson's novel The Dancer from Atlantis covers the same period, but from a pro-Cretan point of view – Theseus being the book's villain, a barbarian pirate and cruel destroyer of Cretan civilisation.
In one passage the protagonist – a time traveller from the 20th Century who had read and liked Renault's book – reflects on how different the actual Theseus is from the way she depicted him.
Suzanne Collins credited The King Must Die as one inspiration for The Hunger Games, with the concept of boys and girls taken by lottery to perform in a deadly competition for the elites' entertainment.