The King Must Die

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The epic of Theseus, the boy-king of Eleusis, ritually pre=ordained to die after one year of marriage to the sacred Queen, but who defies the God's decree and claims his inheritance - and the throne of Athens. His friends are the young men and maidens, slaves of the God, 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. Vivid and convincing...it brims with feeling - Sunday Times Takes the raw material of myth and makes it credible...I am spellbound by Miss Renault's art - The Observer One of the truly fine historical novels of modern times. Not since Robert Graves' I, Claudius has there been such an exciting living image of the Ancient World on this grand scale - New York Times