The Theseus Duo - Mary Renault Audiobook

Written by Mary Renault
Read by Kris Dyer
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The King Must Die (1958)
Series: Theseus, Book 1
Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
Release date: 03-12-15
Publisher: Audible Studios

The epic of Thesus, the boy king of Eleusis, ritually preordained to die after one year of marriage to the sacred queen but who defies God’s decree and claims his inheritance - the throne of Athens

In myth, Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real life is another question, brilliantly explored in The King Must Die. Drawing on modern scholarship and archaeological findings at Knossos, Mary Renault’s Theseus is an utterly lifelike figure—a king of immense charisma, whose boundless strivings flow from strength and weakness—but also one steered by implacable prophecy.

The story follows Theseus’s adventures from Troizen to Eleusis, where the death in the book’s title is to take place, and from Athens to Crete, where he learns to jump bulls and is named king of the victims. Richly imbued with the spirit of its time, this is a page-turner as well as a daring act of imagination.

The book 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 archaeologically and anthropologically plausible story that might have developed into the myth. She captures the essentials while removing the more fantastical elements, such as monsters and the appearances of gods.

The book is quite complex and is divided into parts relating to the city where the story takes place and traces the life of Theseus from Part 1-Troizen, at age six to Part 5- Where Theseus plus Ariadne, whom Theseus intends to marry, take a ship and sail for Greece. On the way, they find what is left of the island of Kalliste, just destroyed by a colossal volcanic explosion. They wonder what impiety provoked the gods into causing such destruction.

The Bull from the Sea (1962)
Series: Theseus, Book 2
Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
Release date: 04-09-15
Publisher: Audible Studios

In this sequel to The King Must Die Theseus defies the Gods’ and claims the throne of Athens a move that culminates in the terrible, fateful destruction of the house of Minos — the Minotaur.

Theseus returns to Athens along with the other Athenian bull-leapers. His father, Aegeus, has committed suicide, which leaves the kingdom to the young Theseus.

He soon meets Pirithoos, the rebellious pirate king of the Lapiths. Pirithoos talks Theseus out of going to Crete to meet his bride-to-be, Phaedra, and instead the two journey to Euxine, home of the Amazons. There, Theseus falls in love with Hippolyta the leader of the Amazons, and after defeating her in single combat, takes her home to Athens with him. She is beautiful, athletic, and honorable, sharing the same physical fearlessness and pride in ‘kingship’ that Theseus has. Hippolyta becomes closer and more important to Theseus than has any other woman or person in his life. Hippolyta bears Theseus a son, Hippolytus, and continues to fight and hunt alongside him.

Years pass. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus and Hippolyta, has grown into a tall, handsome young man with a kingly presence, quiet and serious disposition, and an interest in medicine. Theseus is disappointed to learn, however, that Hippolytus has taken a vow of chastity as part of his devotion to the god of medicine and that he is not interested in being the heir of Theseus to the throne of Athens. Theseus reluctantly decides that his less kingly son by Phaedra, Akamas, should come to Athens to begin to learn how to be king.

From here the story becomes murkier with rivalry, jealousy, deceit and murders all playing a part.