An Overview of the Hero Theseus in the Novel The King Must die by Mary Renault

Mary Renault's novel The King Must Die presents an unbelievable mythical hero named Theseus who just cannot seem to fail at anything he attempts. Theseus is faced with many challenges over the course of the novel and either manages to luckily escape the situation unscathed or successfully fight his way out of it. Renault's The King Must Die does not make the mythological world of Ancient Greece come alive for the reader because Theseus, who is the hero of the story, is the sort of mythological legendary figure who is not a good model for a fictional character because it is not believable that any character could be so incredibly invincible or always manage to have such sheer luck.

Theseus' streak of invincibility begins when he is only six years old in a horse field. He slips away from his guardian, Pieros, to visit the King Horse whom he believes to be the son of Poseidon. As Theseus believes he is Poseidon's son, he sees the King Horse as his brother.

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This horse was described as having "never been haltered, and was as wild as the sea" (4). Theseus brought a treat of a lump of salt to the horse and had a peaceful meeting with it.

Theseus's father later scolded him for this, telling him, "Theseus, you went to the horse field as Pieros' guest. It was unmannerly to give him trouble. A nursing mare might have bitten your arm off. I forbid you to go again" (5). Theseus was clearly very lucky not to run into trouble in the horse field as a small boy.

serious Theseus grew up and was much smaller than the other boys his age. However, this does not stop him from besting the other boys in wrestling matches.

Of course, Theseus is fortunate to ironically able to use his small size to his advantage. This advantage of Theseus' small size came into play on the road to Eleusis when his companion, Dexios, was shoved off a cliff by a very large, broad-shouldered robber. Dexios was killed, but somehow small Theseus managed to shove the very large man off the cliff as well, defending himself and avenging his friend's untimely death. Would a small young man really be able to shove such a large, strong man off a cliff?

In Eleusis, the king Kerkyon is killed every year and his killer becomes the next king. Theseus arrives in Eleusis the day the king must die and learns what he must do. He kills Kerkyon and becomes Kerkyon himself, but once Theseus becomes king, the Eleusian tradition is broken. Lucky Theseus is not killed after one year like all the previous kings. After becoming king, Theseus gets into an argument with the queen and she stabs him in the shoulder with a paring knife, a pain he describes to be “like a bee-sting” (94). However, Theseus says the blade was "not very long, but long enough, I think, to have touched the heart, only I moved and spoilt her aim” (94).

Theseus is nearly stabbed in the heart, but calls the pain a mere bee-sting. Then, only moments later, he picks her up and carries her to the bed. It is unbelievable that although he was stabbed and bleeding profusely that he could be in so little pain and be strong enough to pick up and carry someone. After Theseus takes care of some business as king, he goes to Athens in search of his father, Aigeus.

When Theseus met with him, Lady Medea served a cup of poisoned wine to the unsuspecting Theseus, and Aigeus knew about it and intended to allow him to drink it. However, at the last minute, he had pity on his son and knocked away the glass right before Theseus could take a sip, spilling it everywhere. Lady Medea had wanted Theseus dead. “The priestess Medea, whom in her stillness I had forgotten, was shaking her head at him. It was then that I understood" (125). Theseus would have drank the poison and died, but he was lucky enough to have his father's pity and have his life spared.

Later on in The King Must Die, Theseus decides to become a bull-dancer. The highest and most difficult to attain position as a bull-dancer is the position of bull-leaper. After watching a successful bull-leaper, Theseus becomes a bull-leaper who eventually becomes the best bull leaper and leads his bull-dancing group, the Cranes, to success. Even bull-dancing comes easy to Theseus as he seems to become the best at everything! Theseus later finds himself in danger at a bull-dance in which Asterion meant to have him killed.

Of course, lucky Theseus escapes this danger and, with the superhuman earthquake sensing ability he discovered he had as a boy, he can tell there will be earthquakes the next day as a result of Poseidon's anger. Theseus and the other bull-dancers escape, Theseus saves Ariadne just in time, then leads the Cretans in an effort to find and kill Asterion. As always, Theseus' quest is successful. It seems that Theseus cannot fail at anything he attempts. Although he is constantly finding himself in situations that could mean life or death for him, Theseus always seems to magically avoid any harm, whether by his unbelievable invincibility as a wrestler and a warrior, or by sheer chance, such as his father's last minute realization that Theseus was his son.

So many events that are essential to the storyline in The King Must Die happen just in the nick of time, with Theseus as either the hero who has accomplished them or the subject of another's mercy. While The King Must Die may begin as an entertaining story, it quickly becomes apparent that Theseus will never fail. This fact makes The King Must Die a tedious read because the result of every conflict in the plot becomes so predictable: Theseus will always succeed.