No longer is the god of the sea, Poseidon, an active presence in the tale, as the myth of his parental lineage to Theseus is transformed into a rather credible connection based on faith and religious sentiment. In order to illustrate this shift of perception, Theseus's uncanny and intuitive prediction of earthquakes is correlated with Poseidon by metaphor: "The God is coming, I feel him in the ground" (Renault 170).
It is in a similarly plausible and humane way that the other culturally relevant aspects of the tale are presented, except for the superstition exhibited in the episode of the athenean witch's curse on Theseus, as he contends that "the charm she put on me was very evil, and if you talk of such things you give them power" (Renault 75). Indeed, Mary Renault successfully humanized most of the legend's mythical elements, by making Theseus, for instance, earn the kingship of Eleusis in an appropriate manner, or become identified as the son and heir of Aegius, the king of Athens, and perhaps, most significantly, by converting the supernatural Minotaur into the despicable son of Minos and heir to Crete's throne.
The definition of a hero in most stories who deal with Greek mythology is that of a special person, typically a man, who is admired for courage or noble qualities and sometimes endowed with supernatural powers. In Mary Renault's the King Must Die, the reader is presented with a de-mystified hero figure, brave, intelligent, righteous, and pious, a man who struggles to take the historical place that...
Every difficulty that Theseus encounters, such as not having the desired solid build for wrestling, his childhood friend Dexios dying, not being able to lift the stone that his mother singled out, and realizing that his father is not Poseidon, but Aegius, King of Athens, has positive outcomes. Significantly, Theseus finds practical solutions to each of the mentioned problems, which have the combined effect of endowing the hero with crucial confidence and leadership skills while he is in the adolescent stage of development. Finally, the main character's resolve and courage are so great, that when he reaches Crete in order to accomplish his destiny of overthrowing Asterion, his team of bull-dancing companions ardently admire him: "[the Cranes] they all looked at me, as if I had the power to make things other than they were. They thought me hard" (Renault 122). All of these aspects work together to depict the image of a distinguished, yet mortal hero.
In conclusion, it can be asserted that Mary Renault's 1958 masterpiece provides a broad, authentic, and uniquely insightful glimpse into the 1450 B.C. Greek civilization. The King Must Die is an original and engaging bildungsroman that presents the evolution of a famous Greek hero, Theseus, from childhood to adulthood.
Reference:
Renault, Mary. The King Must Die. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.
