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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. Naturally, it is set in Ancient Greece: Troizen, Corinth, Eleusis, Athens, Knossos in Crete, and Naxos. Rather than retelling the myth, Renault constructs an archeologically possible story that might have developed into the myth.

Plot summary

Book One: Troizen

The novel opens with Theseus as a six-year-old child in the household of his grandfather, King Pittheus of Troizen. His mother is a priestess; his father's identity is unknown. Theseus believes that the sea god Poseidon fathered him, and serves at Poseidon's temple. There he discovers that he can sense earthquakes before they happen.

When Theseus is fourteen, he kills his first man and beds his first girl. But as Theseus ages, he becomes frustrated because he is so much shorter and lighter than most Hellenes his age. As a result, he is a poor wrestler, though an excellent archer, javalin-thrower, and runner. To compensate for his light build, he learns to defeat his wrestling opponents by using special holds and throws, some of which he invents for himself.

After being affronted by Cretan merchants whose ships control the sea route to Athens, Theseus decides to go to Athens via the bandit-infested land route: the Isthmus of Corinth. On the way, his sole companion, Dexios, is killed by the bandit Skiron. Theseus avenges him.

Book Two: Eleusis

In Eleusis, Theseus is halted on the road and forced to fight King Kerkyon in single combat. It is the custom of the Eleusinians to make a stranger kill their king each year, as a sacrifice to the Earth mother goddess. Theseus kills Kerkyon and becomes king. He also weds the 27-year-old Queen, Persephone, whom he finds extremely skilled in sex. But because he is young and expected to die in one year's time, everyone treats him like a child of no account. So he soon becomes restless and frustrated.

With his bodyguard of Eleusinian youths, Theseus successfully hunts the great she-boar Phaia. He becomes friendly with Pylas, Prince of the neighboring kingdom of Megara, and arranges for their two states to jointly attack and wipe out the bandits that infest the Isthmus of Corinth. The war is a complete success, but the Eleusinian queen, rightly suspecting that Theseus is trying to become more powerful than she, has her brother Xanthos try to assassinate Theseus. Theseus kills Xanthos in single combat.

Book Three: Athens

With the excuse of wanting to be purified of Xanthos's blood at the Athenian shrine of Apollo, Theseus finally goes to Athens. But his aged father Aigeus, who fears the powerful young king (whom he quite fails to recognize), would have poisoned Theseus on the urging of his lover Medea, who wants the Athenian throne for her sons. But Aigeus recognizes Theseus's sword just in time, and knocks the poisoned goblet from his son's hand. Medea escapes; how no one knows. Aigeus proclaims Theseus his son and heir.

When a Cretan ship comes to collect a yearly tribute of seven boys and seven girls from Athens, Theseus offers himself in one boy's place. He insists, despite his father's pleas, claiming that it is what his patron god Poseidon has asked him to do. Theseus becomes a Cretan slave.

Book Four: Crete

On the ship to Crete, the captain tells Theseus that he and the others will be bull-dancers in the great Cretan palace of Knossos. They will be put into an arena and made to dance around a bull and leap his horns while avoiding being trampled or gored. Theseus forms the other thirteen Athenian and Eleusinian boys and girls into a brotherhood named the Cranes (led by himself), and they swear eternal friendship and loyalty to each other.

Their plan is ruined when Asterion hides Minos's body and gives out that the King has sailed away to Sicily. Asterion is not suspicious of Theseus, but he needs money to bribe courtiers and the army to support his bid for the throne. He places huge bets against Theseus in the day's bull dance, and maddens the bull with drugs. Theseus barely survives.

That evening, Theseus senses a massive earthquake impending. Realizing that their quarters will collapse, he launches the revolt. Joined by the other bull-dancers, the Cranes arm themselves, kill the guards, and escape the palace. Theseus rescues Ariadne as the palace collapses.

Ariadne and Theseus raise the peasantry of Crete in revolt. The rebels battle Asterion's troops in the remains of the palace. Theseus fights the Minotauros in single combat and beheads him with the axe Labrys.

Book Five: Naxos

Nearly all the bull-dancers, plus Ariadne, whom Theseus intends to marry, take a ship and sail for Greece. At the island of Naxos, they disembark in time for the bacchanalian festivities in honor of Mother Dia. Theseus is utterly appalled to find Ariadne drunk, senseless, and soaked from head to foot with blood. Apparently human blood from sacrifices. Sickened, he takes the ship and sails off with the others, leaving her behind.

Theseus keeps the black one aloft, and Aigeus in his grief commits suicide by leaping from a tower into the Aegean Sea. Theseus fatalistically muses that it is best not to question what the gods have ordained, for "men are only men."