Matter of Rome

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Matter of Rome

According to the mediæval

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
poet

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
Jean Bodel

Jean Bodel

Jean Bodel, who lived in the late twelfth century, was an Old French poet who wrote a number of chanson de geste as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras....
, the Matter of Rome was the literary cycle

Literature cycle

Literary cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures, often based on mythical figures or loosely on historic ones....
made up of Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
and Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
, focusing on military hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece....
es like Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
and Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
. Bodel's division of the literary cycles he knew best into the Matter of Britain

Matter of Britain

The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the legends that concern the Celtic and legendary history of Great Britain, especially those focused on King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table ....
, the Matter of France

Matter of France

The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of legendary history that springs from the Old French medieval literature of the chanson de geste....
and the Matter of Rome calls to mind the concept of the Nine Worthies

Nine Worthies

The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, mythological or semi-legendary figures who, in the Middle Ages, were believed to personify the ideals of chivalry....
, made up of three champions of the Pagan

Paganism

Paganism is the blanket term given to describe religions and spiritual practices of pre-Christian Europe, and by extension a term for polytheistic?traditions or folk religion?worldwide seen from a Western or Christian viewpoint....
, Jew

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish, and Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
faiths.

These were the subjects of a good deal of Old French

Old French

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Encyclopedia

According to the mediæval

Middle Ages

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
Jean Bodel

Jean Bodel

Literature cycle

Literary cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures, often based on mythical figures or loosely on historic ones....
made up of Greek

Greek mythology

Roman mythology

Classical antiquity

Hero

Alexander the Great

Julius Caesar

Matter of Britain

Matter of France

Nine Worthies

Paganism

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish, and Christian

Christianity

Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
literature. The poems that were written on them were called the romans d'antiquité, the "romances of antiquity." This name presages the anachronistic

Anachronism

An anachronism is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other....
approach the mediæval poets used in dealing with these subjects. For example, in the epic

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
poems Roman d'Alixandre and the Roman de Troie, Alexander the Great, and Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
and his fellow heroes of the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
were treated as knights of chivalry

Chivalry

Chivalry is a term relating to the medieval institution of knighthood. It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and courtly love....
, not much different from the heroes of the chansons de geste
Chanson de geste

The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poetry that appear at the dawn of French literature....
. Elements of courtly love

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalry expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility....
were introduced into the poems; in the Roman de Thèbes, a romantic relationship absent from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
sources is introduced into the tale of Parthenopæus

Parthenopeus

In Greek mythology, Parthenopeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes and the son of Atalanta and Hippomenes, Meleager, or Ares, or perhaps the son of Talaus....
and Antigone

Antigone

Antigone is the name of two different women in Greek mythology. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood" or "in place of a mother" based from the root gone, "that which generates" ....
. Military episodes in these tales were also multiplied, and used to introduce scenes of knight-errant

Knight-errant

A knight-errant is a figure of Middle Ages Romance . "Errant," meaning wandering or roving, indicates how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures to prove himself as a knight, such as in a pas d'Armes....
ry and tournaments

Tournament (medieval)

A Tournament, or tourney is the name popularly given to chivalry competitions or mock fights of the Middle Ages and Renaissance . It is one of various types of hastiludes....
.

Another example of French mediæval poetry in this genre is the Eneas, a treatment of the Æneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
that comes across as being a sort of burlesque of Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's poem. Sentimental and fantasy elements in the source material were multiplied, and incidents from Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, the most popular Latin poet of the Middle Ages, were mixed into the pastiche

Pastiche

The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic genre. The word has two competing meanings, meaning either a "wikt:hodgepodge" or an imitation....
. The Philomela attributed to Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes

Chr?tien de Troyes was a France poet and trouv?re who flourished in the late 12th century in poetry. Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been from Troyes, or at least intimately connected with it, and between 1160 and 1172 he served at the court of his patroness Count of Champagne Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquit...
, a retelling of the story of Philomela and Procne

Procne

Procne may refer to:*In Greek mythology, Procne was sister to Philomela , wife of Tereus, and mother of Itys*194 Prokne, an asteroid*In the Golden Sun videogame series, one summon is Procne, described as "a goddess in bird form"...
, also takes its source from Ovid's Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
.

This anachronistic treatment of elements from Greek mythology is similar to that of the Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
narrative poem

Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story and is a snapshot of a poet's thoughts and feelings. The poems may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex....
"Sir Orfeo

Sir Orfeo

Sir Orfeo is an Anonymous work Middle English narrative poetry. It retells the story of Orpheus as a king rescuing his wife from the fairy king....
", where the Greek Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary figure, probably from Thracian origin, venerated by the Greeks and Thracians of the Classical age as a chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes....
becomes the knight Sir Orfeo who rescues his wife Heurodis (i.e. Eurydice

Eurydice

In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph or a sweet maiden. She was the wife of Orpheus. Orpheus loved her dearly; on their wedding day, Orpheus played songs filled with happiness as his bride danced through the meadow....
) from the fairy

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as spirit#Metaphysical and metaphorical uses, supernatural or preternatural....
king.