"Mary Renault - Greece 1 - The King Must Die" - читать интересную книгу автора (Renault Mary)

I sat up; this I could understand.

"When they needed new pastures, they let him loose; and he, taking care of his people as the god
advised him, would smell the air seeking food and water. Here in Troizen, when he goes out for the god,
they guide him round the fields and over the ford. We do it in memory. But in those days he ran free. The
barons followed him, to give battle if his passage was disputed; but only the god told him where to go.

"And so, before he was loosed, he was always dedicated. The god only inspires his own. Can you
understand this, Theseus? You know that when Diokles hunts, Argo will drive the game to him; but he
would not do it for you, and by himself he would only hunt small game. But because he is Diokles' dog,
he knows his mind.

"The King Horse showed the way; the barons cleared it; and the King led the people. When the work of
the King Horse was done, he was given to the god, as you saw yesterday. And in those days, said my
great-grandfather, as with the King Horse, so with the King."

I looked up in wonder; and yet, not in astonishment. Something within me did not find it strange. He
nodded at me, and ran down his fingers through my hair, so that my neck shivered.

"Horses go blindly to the sacrifice; but the gods give knowledge to men. When the King was dedicated,
he knew his moira. In three years, or seven, or nine, or whenever the custom was, his term would end
and the god would call him. And he went consenting, or else he was no king, and power would not fall
on him to lead the people. When they came to choose among the Royal Kin, this was his sign: that he
chose short life with glory, and to walk with the god, rather than live long, unknown like the stall-fed ox.
And the custom changes, Theseus, but this token never. Remember, even if you do not understand."

I wanted to say I understood him. But I was silent, as in the sacred oak wood.

"Later the custom altered. Perhaps they had a King they could not spare, when war or plague had
thinned the Kindred. Or perhaps Apollo showed them a hidden thing. But they ceased to offer the King
at a set time. They kept him for the extreme sacrifice, to appease the gods in their great angers, when
they had sent no rain, or the cattle died, or in a hard war. And it was no one's place to say to him, 'It is
time to make the offering.' He was the nearest to the god, because he consented to his moira; and he
himself received the god's commandment."

He paused; and I said, "How?"

"In different ways. By an oracle, or an omen, or some prophecy being fulfilled; or, if the god came close
to him, by some sign between them, something seen, or a sound. And so it is still, Theseus. We know our
time."

I neither spoke nor wept, but laid my head against his knee. He saw that I understood him.

"Listen, and do not forget, and I will show you a mystery. It is not the sacrifice, whether it comes in youth
or age, or the god remits it; it is not the bloodletting that calls down power. It is the consenting, Theseus.
The readiness is all. It washes heart and mind from things of no account, and leaves them open to the
god. But one washing does not last a lifetime; we must renew it, or the dust returns to cover us. And so
with this. Twenty years I have ruled in Troizen, and four times sent the King Horse to Poseidon. When I
lay my hand on his head to make him nod, it is not only to bless the people with the omen. I greet him as
my brother before the god, and renew my moira."