I am strongly reminded of what legionseagle said recently: "And I think where Mary Renault comes in is that her contemporary novels -- the ones I've read, at any rate -- seem to be setting up magical realist situations, and then failing to deliver the magic. It's much more satisfying (to me, at least) when you get into the historicals and realise that yes, it probably really is Demeter in that cave, or at least her characters are perfectly straightforwardly believing she's there, rather than it being a rather screwed up young man failing to cope with his mother. I prefer my Oedipus as a historical figure rather than a psychological metaphor."