King Must Die
... As this majestic, yet fictional, character slays the mythical Minotaur, a classic myth is paralleled through the novel, The King Must Die. Mary Renault, the author of The King Must Die, has presented the Theseus myth in a way such that the myth reflects the difference in the cultures of the city-states Theseus spends time in. ... Ever since they were raided from Mycenae, when the actual royal kin were put to death and the Lion King’s (King Minos’) brother married the Goddess on Earth, the kings did things their way without heeding customs and were no longer sacrificed every nine years by the Mother Labrys, or double-edged-axe. ... Though people are power hungry in the twenty-first century, being a king of an ancient Greek city-state was only beneficial to the wittiest of men. Being the Minoan king in ancient times would have meant being sacrificed to the gods after nine years of being king. ... Another day on which the king was meant to be sacrificed was the day of The King Must Die for the Kerkyon, or king, of Eleusis. This day of The King Must Die exclaims a lot about the background of the head of state and reflects the society in Eleusis.