Theseus grows up in Troizen, though to his mind he doesn't actually grow anywhere near enough, believing himself to be the son of Poseidon. This turns out to not be literally true, but Theseus is a devout and sincere matter-of-fact believer, and he hears the voice of the god, so he has two fathers, one a god and one the beleaguered king of Athens. On the way to join his father, he becomes part of a yearly ceremony where an old king dies and a new one marries the queen. Theseus knows that he himself will die when the year is out, but submits to the logic of the rites and sacrifices. Avoiding his fate, he eventually joins his father, only to find himself, for similar reasons of rite and sacrifice and obligation, to volunteer himself as part of the annual tribute to Crete. There as a slave he is made into a bull dancer, and because of his pride and confidence and inner certainty, he becomes a supreme bull dancer while remaining true to himself and his sea-god father.

This is told in the voice of Theseus, tough, matter-of-fact and generally straightforward except when he tries to deduce the reasoning of the gods and obey their will and do them honour. He is proud and fierce and pragmatic, but also clear-sighted and sensible. An unusual hero for his grounded sense of his own importance and the profound responsibilities that go with it, particularly his acceptance of the probability that at some point he will have to be made into a human sacrifice. This is a theme that recurs through the book, and the inherent corruption rotting the heart of Crete and bringing down the wrath of the gods is their failure to make this due observance.

A strong, sturdy, sensuous, earthy book, this is an amazingly vivid and fascinating retelling of the old myth as a series of historical events that are nonetheless drenched in the everyday reality of belief on the gods. Brilliant.