Bingley looks at two classics by Mary Renault on the subject of the Greek hero Theseus, The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea.
"Ms. Renault's story follows Plutarch's biography of Theseus, supplemented by early 20th century archaeological discoveries and anthropological speculations. Few scholars nowadays would accept the idea of a cultural, political, and military struggle between invading Indo European Hellenes who worship a sky god and indigenous pre-Indo Europeans who worship the earth mother in a matriarchal society where the Queen's consort is killed each year as the dying and rising god of vegetation, let alone the idea of the Kentaurs (Centaurs) as Neanderthals. Nevertheless, The King Must Die and to a lesser extent The Bull From the Sea remain utterly compelling as recreations of a legendary age."Read A Look at Mary Renault's Theseus.
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