The King Must Die

First published in 1958, this novel retells the youth of Theseus in a Bronze Age Mediterranean treated as history rather than myth. Theseus grows in Troizen, claims a father in Poseidon and another in King Aegeus of Athens, and takes the road of robbers toward the Isthmus. He is sent among the Athenian tribute youth to Knossos, where he enters the bull-court and the palace of Minos, and where the story of the Labyrinth becomes a political and religious struggle. The book is a historical novel of a legendary king, not a fantasy of gods in modern dress.

Quarter-bound in black buckram with black Modigliani paper sides, printed with a white and orange picture. Red endpapers. Black slipcase with front pattern printed in white and orange.